These Hearts
by nightshade913
Summary: Mallory,Bianca, and Corey were normal rich teenage girls. They were just starting a summer that was sure to be filled with parties and plane old fun. But everything changes when Bianca invites the three new boys to her start of summer party.
1. Open eyes

These Hearts

Chapter 1

Waking up on that first day of summer, something in my gut told me that I'd never forget this one.

My name is Mallory Storm I'm a 17 year old with long black hair with a blue streak down the front. I have brown eyes, I'm average height and I play the saxophone.

After getting dressed I went downstairs to greet the family and grab something quick to eat before heading out.

"Good morning mom, morning dad." I said, smiling at my parents sitting at our wooden kitchen table doing their morning routine. Dad was reading the paper and mom was doing the weird thing she does with her fried eggs, she cuts off all of the white parts and puts the whole yolk in her mouth at once. It's gross.

"Good morning mal." Dad said he folded up his paper and started eating.

"Good morning sweetie," Mom said, "what do you have planned for today?" My parents are the creators of the electronic line "Storm" they make many different devices that perform different functions such as music players and video cameras. So to put it bluntly, we're pretty rich.

I walked over to the counter and grabbed a pear from the fruit bowl.

"I'll probably go swimming or hang out with the girls." I said as I pealed the sticker off of my fruit.

"Okay just remember your curfew, be home before 11." Mom reminds me for the millionth time, jeez woman I was 5 minutes late two months ago. Let it go already! I rolled my eyes and dad smiled at me.

"Hey Mallory, have you seen my screwdriver?" my little brother Jeremy shouted from upstairs.

"No Jeremy, sorry." I replied. Jeremy is 9, he loves making robots and fixing stuff around the house, right now he's fixing the electrical wiring in the hallway.

"Come give me a hug before I go Jeremy!" I shouted up to him. He sprints down the stairs and I squeeze him tight and kiss the top of his head, "have a good day kiddo." I whisper to him. "Okay, see you guys later." I said while walking out the door.

"Bye." they replied in unison.

The green hills of Yosemite Lakes Park always take my breath away. It's a small neighborhood but it's a good one. We have a mall, a pool, a grocery store and a few restaurants. If you wanted to do anything else you'd have to drive the thirty minutes to Fresno.

There is always a clear blue sky this time of year, so beautiful that no matter how bad of a mood I'm in it always cheers me up. Today it's so clear you can see almost all of the mansions within a 10 mile radius.

Sliding into my dark blue convertible I started the engine and pulled out of the drive way. Deciding to go to my friend Bianca's house I took a right at the end of the road. Soon after I began wishing that I'd taken the long way.

I got stopped at a red light and Zack Wayland, the jerk of the neighborhood, pulled up next to me in his brand new truck with that smug smile of his plastered on his face.

"Hey Mallory," he said, "what's happening?"

"Well I was trying to avoid you, looks like my plan failed." I replied.

"Does that mean you didn't have fun on our date last night?" he asked, cocky as always. I took a deep breath before answering.

"Oh I had a great time," I said icily, "getting felt up on the first date is every girls dream!"

"Well if it's me that's feeling you up then I totally agree," he laughed, "so how about another date?"

"In your dreams." I yelled and bolted through the now green light leaving him and his stunned face sitting at the intersection.

I arrived at Bianca's place and groaned out loud when I saw her huge smile that she always has when she's planning one of her outrageous parties.

Bianca Valdez, along with being one of my best friends was the queen of parties. When she's planning a party she's in her element, they always turn out wonderfully for everyone but me. Bianca is always trying to set me up with boys, she claims that because I don't have a steady boyfriend and haven't had one since 9th grade, I'm missing out on one of the most important things in life. So every party she trys to set me up with some guy, but I'm just not interested!

"Hey B, how's your latest party going?" I asked when I reached the front porch where she was sitting.

"Great! Wait how did you know I was planning another party?" she asked, confused.

"It's the smile. You know the one that screams, 'I'm having another party!'. So when is it?"

"Tonight and you just have to come!" she smiled, "I've got the perfect guy for you!"

"No no no! No way, no more setting me up."

"But he's really nice!" she insisted, partly pleading with me, "he and his friends just moved here, their dads are all partners in the same company or something like that. I know you will love him, he's super cute!"

"No Bianca, I told you at your last party, no more playing match-maker."

"Fine." she said, pouting. I sighed and decided to change the subject.

"Have you seen Corey today?" I asked.

"Ya, her mom is giving her a hard time because she died her hair from blonde to black. She's glad I'm having a party tonight," she said in a matter of fact tone, " I think she looks good with black hair but I wouldn't change from blonde if you paid me."

"Mallory!" Bianca's little brother Brice shouts from his balcony, "why didn't you bring Jeremy?" he asked, upset that his friend wasn't with me.

"He's busy fixing something in my room, aren't you glad to see me?" I asked, messing with him just a bit.

"Oh, well of course I am, I just wanted to show Jeremy my new robot. It plays hockey." he said smiling, obviously proud of himself.

"Cool, you'll have to come over and show me sometime." next to me Bianca rolls her eyes.

"Brice go back inside we're talking about big people things." she says, annoyed at the interruption. Brice sticks his tongue out at her and goes back into his room, closing the balcony door behind him.

"You shouldn't be so mean to him." I scolded her. She waves her hand at me dismissively.

"He'll get over it, so you're coming tonight right? It wont be a party without you there." She said.

"I'll think about it. What time?"

"Eight!" she said. I stood up from my spot next to her and she followed me to my car.

"I'm going to go see Corey and make sure she's okay. Talk to you later." I said while I got back in the car.

"Alright chick, pick out something hot for tonight." she said, already positive I would be there and backed away from the car. I laughed.

"See ya woman." I waved and drove off towards Corey's house.

When I arrived at Corey's house I could already hear her music blaring at top volume. That meant two things, 1 her parents Alec and Colet were gone, and two they had pissed her off and she was in her room with the stereo on so she can scream to get her anger out. Fun! I walked into the mansion, covering my ears so I wouldn't get a headache from the volume. I opened her door and saw her in mid-scream, she stopped when she saw me.

"What happened?" I asked after turning the music down.

"Mom hates my hair and the fact that I burned all the pink stuff she bought me and I haven't seen my dad in a week." She replied sourly.

"Where has he been?"

"Work, work, and more work. He's got a big project that he has got to finish by tomorrow."

"So you'll see him in a day, it'll be ok," I assured her, " plus who cares if Colet doesn't like your hair, I think you look great."

"Ya right he's always got something more important than spending time with me to do, like taking Evan to a golf tournament or mom out shopping." She said in a jealous tone. She was right though, he was always hanging out with her twin brother Evan, and Colet always needed some new shoes or a hat. I searched for a different subject to take her mind off of her cruddy family.

"Are you coming to Bianca's party tonight? It's going to be fun, Bianca is going to try to set me up with some guy that just moved here, he apparently has some cute friends." I said, trying to be persuasive.

"I have a boyfriend already remember?" she said, smiling slightly. Yes! Mission accomplished!

"Oh yes, Blake, doesn't mean you can't look."

"Fine, I'll be there, what time?" she asked, smiling widely now.

"Eight. I'm glad you're going to come, maybe that will save me from Bianca's match-making frenzy."

Corey and I laughed and spent a few hours picking out her outfit and accessories, it was one of those times you saw her truly happy.

"Well I'd better get going, have to get dressed and everything." I said while getting in my car.

"Ok I'll see you in a little while. Bye chick!"

"Bye woman!" I said, smiling.

An hour later I was dressed and ready to go, hoping that Bianca wouldn't try anything and we'd all just have a good time tonight, for Bianca and Corey's sakes. If anything happened at the party that Bianca hadn't planned she would lose it, and Corey would be stressed and just go back into the state I found her in earlier. I crossed my fingers and prayed for the best as I got into the car and drove.


	2. Mint Cookies

Ok guys, tell me if you liked the original chapter 2 better than the rewritten edition. enjoy!

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

These Hearts

Chapter 2

You could hear Bianca's party two blocks away from her house. Naturally the only music her DJ was playing were the top forty songs in the country, and of course she knew all the words to each and every song that played. I parked as close as I could (a block away) and walked up to her house. She and Corey found me first.

"You look great!" they said in unison.

"Really hot!" Corey added with a wink.

"Thanks, you guys look awesome. How many hours did you spend doing your hair Bianca?" I asked, teasing her.

"Two or three," she laughed, "The point is we all look great!" she squealed in excitement.

"I second that." Corey said, smiling and we all laughed. I noticed that Bianca had dyed her hair to brown. I raised my eyebrow at her.

"What's with the hair?" I asked, "I thought you weren't going to change from blonde." she reached up and twirled one of her perfect curls around her finger.

"Oh ya, I decided that I liked my original hair color better than blonde. I mean you can't really be a Valdez and be blonde, it just looks weird." She said in her matter of fact tone. She had a point, nobody in her family tree had ever had any hair color besides brown and she wasn't about to change that. She looks better with brown hair anyway.

Bianca was wearing what looked like a brand new outfit. It was light purple with the shirt having no straps. The skirt had a slanted cut with a wavy trim. With her hair down and expertly curved ever so slightly. She wasn't wearing that much jewelry, small diamond ear rings and a thin diamond choker, a typical amount for her.

Corey was wearing a short blood-red dress and black leather bracelets on both wrists. A black rose pendent hung from her neck.

I had on a soft black tank-top with small black pearl buttons down the front and a short black skirt. I had silver bracelets on each wrist that wound up a few inches on my arms, and a matching silver choker around my neck.

"It looks awesome," I told her, "so Corey, where's Blake?" her jerky pothead boyfriend didn't seem to be around. It was a good think in my opinion.

"He's grounded so he couldn't make it." she said. YAY! I had to physically stop myself from jumping for joy.

"Well that means it will be easier to check out the hotties that just moved here." Bianca said as she winked at Corey. Corey and I laughed at her.

"Speaking of hotties," Corey started, "weren't you planning on setting Mal up with one of those new boys?"

"Well not anymore, thanks a lot Corey!" Bianca said, slightly ticked off.

"Oops, sorry." Corey said, and then winked at me. I smiled back and snickered at Bianca's disappointed face.

"Ok well, I'm going to hit the food table, I'm starving." I said, wanting to get away before B could repair her damaged match-making plan.

"Well Corey," Bianca said, "shall we get on the dance floor?" Bianca held her hand out and Corey grabbed it and smiled.

"I thought you'd never ask." she said and they walked off to the dance floor, still holding hands while I headed towards the food. Bianca had put out her usual spread of chips, soda and various sandwiches and desserts. I licked my lips and dove in. I piled my plate high with junk food. As I reached for the last mint cookie, my favorite cookie of all time, a hand snatched it from the plate. I looked up and saw the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.

He had short black hair, olive skin and gray blue eyes that I could have stared into all night. He was gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking. It was then that I realized I was holding my breath. I let it out slowly and my brain started creating intelligent thought again.

"I believe that I mine." I said pointing at the cookie in his hand.

"I saw it first." he said, smiling down at me. He had to be at least five foot twelve tall, maybe more. That was good, I liked tall guys. I looked up at him from my five foot 6 inches and took another breath.

"You did not." I said, "Come on, its my favorite kind of cookie and I haven't had one in forever." I said, trying to convince him into handing it over. I hope this takes awhile, he's too cute to be interested in my, any way I could prolong my time with him was greatly appreciated.

"They're my favorite too you know," he said, "but I guess we could split it." Wow his favorite too, interesting….

"Sounds fair." I said, smiling up at him. He broke the cookie and placed one half in my hand, smiling back at me. Wow.

"My name is Shane Thorn, I just moved here along with my friends Aidan and Dawson." He said.

"I'm Mallory Storm, my friend Bianca is the one responsible for this party."

"Nice to meet you, Mallory." He said, holding his hand out for me to shake.

"Likewise, Shane." I said as I shook his hand. "You know, Bianca prides herself at being a great match-maker, if you or your friends need help finding a girl to ask out she'd be glad to help."

"What if I already found a girl I wanted to ask out?" he asked, blushing a little.

"Well, in my opinion I think you should go ask the lucky girl to a movie or something." I said and felt a blush creep across my own face.

"Well then, Mallory would you like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?" he asked with an award winning smile on his face.

"You don't waste any time do you?" I said, my smile growing even wider, "yes Shane I would love to go to dinner with you."

"Great!" he said, a relieved expression covering his handsome face. Just then a commotion started outside and we both turned towards the noise. I looked through the sliding glass door he was standing in front of and saw Corey push some boy in Bianca's pool.

"Excuse me for a second." We said at the same time. Then we both rushed out to the pool.

"What a woman." the boy in the pool said with a big smile on his face.

"Dawson," Shane said, "what the hell man? What happened?" he grabbed the boys arm and helped him out of the water.

"Isn't it obvious?" Dawson replied, "I was pushed in there by that gorgeous creature." he smiled at Corey and she turned her back to him. Shane shook his friend and asked for the whole story while I went over to Corey. I tuned them out so I could hear her side of the story.

"Oh my god! Isn't that guy like insanely hot?" she said, out of breath, "oh wow I think I might be in love with him!" she was blushing scarlet red.

"I'm confused, if you're feeling this way then why did you push him in the pool?"

"I'm dating Blake!" she explained, "I can't be falling for Dawson, even if he is super cute, funny and the nicest guy I've ever met! I needed a get away and pushing him in the pool seemed like a good idea at the time."

" Whoa ok. slow down. How do you know all that about him?"

"We have been talking all night." She said, calming down. She had finally gotten control of her breathing.

"What happened to dancing with Bianca?" I asked, wondering where the party princess had wandered off to.

"She had to go fix something and Dawson came up and started dancing with me." she said with a smile that just screamed, 'I'm in love!'

"Wow you really went over the deep end didn't you." I said, happy for her. Shane came up to me with Dawson at his side.

"Hey, sorry but I have to find Aidan and get out of here." he said. Dawson winked at Corey. She giggled and looked away, a fresh blush on her face.

"It's ok, I'll see you tomorrow night." I smiled at him.

"I'll pick you up at eight, come hungry." he winked at me and dragged Dawson away in search of their lost friend.

"Oh mallory, what am I going to do!" she asked as she fell into my arms. "I have a boyfriend but I'm crazy about Dawson!"

"It'll be ok, don't worry, we'll figure it out. For now just enjoy yourself ok." I let her go as Bianca walked up to us with a big smile on her face.

"Where have you been?" I asked her.

"Oh just having the best kiss of my life with Aidan, he's one of the new guys. You know, the ones I wanted to set you up with." she giggled.

"So I have a date with Shane, Corey's in love with Dawson, and you and Aidan are already making out in a dark corner." her eyes opened a little wider and she gaped at Corey's blushing face.

"Whoa," she says and giggles again, "you miss a lot when you're off kissing cute boys." I shook my head, amazed at how fast all of this had happened. We huddled together, our hands on each others shoulders, and smiled.

"Best party ever." We said together.


	3. Paper Fans

These hearts

Chapter 3

"Jeremy, what do you think?" I asked him.

"Well the red one isn't really good for a first date," he said from where he was sitting on my bed, "plus the blue one brings out your eyes." He smiled at me.

"I guess you're right, and it goes with the skirt better." I hung the red blouse back up in my closet and put the blue tank top next to him on the bed. The shirt was dark blue with beading in the design of a stargazer lily, my favorite flower. It looked great with my denim miniskirt and black heals. I was going to wear a blue sapphire ring and matching ear rings with a matching sapphire pendent.

"You are going to look great mal, trust me." he slid off of the bed to give me a hug.

"Thanks Jeremy, I'm really nervous." I hug him back and kiss his forehead.

"You'll be fine, Shane sounds like an awesome guy. Oh and that guy Dawson!" he laughed, "I can't believe Corey pushed him in the pool!" I give him a fierce look.

"Don't laugh, she's really stressed about this." I said and he hung his head.

"I'm sorry." He said and lifted his head to look me in the eyes, "This must be hard for her. I think she should dump that jerk Blake and go with Dawson." I sighed and nodded in agreement.

"I know, Blake treats her like crap. She has to decide this one on her own though. But talking about people behind there back is rude so lets stop. Are you sure this is the best outfit for tonight?" Jeremy rolled his eyes at me.

"Yes I'm sure. I've fully researched all this stuff because of the female robot I'm making. You look great, Shane is going to flip out when he sees you. Now go do your hair, you need about three hours just to finish that don't you?" he said, teasing me. I laughed.

"Mom is going to drop me off at Bianca's house so Brice and I can play with his new robot." He said as he walked out of my room, "I'll see you tonight. I want to hear all about it."

"You bet. See you later Jeremy." I said and smiled at him again.

"See ya mal."

Now that Jeremy was gone I could take a shower.

I tuned the water on and gathered all of my bath stuff. I really hope this goes well, I really like Shane and can't believe he'd asked me out. Oh well, since Bianca, Corey, and Jeremy were all positive it was going to be fine I decided to stop worrying and start relaxing. The hot water mixed with my lavender body wash unknotted my muscles and I start to calm down. I washed my hair and got out of the shower. When I had dried off I went to change into the outfit Jeremy and I had spent all afternoon picking out. I picked up the shirt and saw a small gift wrapped package with a note attached. It said: "I ordered this perfume from one of mom's magazines for you to wear the next time you had a date. Enjoy. Love, Jeremy."

"I opened the bottle of perfume and smelled it. Oh wow. The only way to describe it was that it smelled like a blend of lilacs and orchids and almost every other flower you could think of had been bottled just for me.

Mom definitely did something right when she had him. He was so sweet! I sprayed the perfume on and grabbed my denim jacket then headed downstairs to wait for Shane. I reached the last step just as the doorbell rang. I opened the door and smiled up at what I thought was going to be my date. Needless to say I was surprised to see Dawson on my front porch.

"Hi," he said. He had a distressed look on his face, "my name is Dawson. I'm Shane's friend."

"I know. Speaking of Shane, where is he? He's still coming right?" I asked, suddenly worried by his expression.

"Oh he'll be here soon but this isn't about him. I heard you and Corey are good friends and I need some help. I tried talking to her today but she ignored me, I really like her and was wondering if you could help me out." I breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door wider.

"Sure come in." I said and we sat down on one of my living room couches. "Ok the thing is, she has a boyfriend." I told him, "but last night after she pushed you in the pool she told me that she really liked you, and I think she is planning on breaking up with him. He treats her like crap."

"How could anyone treat that angel badly? If she was with me she would be treated like a queen." He said. The passion and determination in his voice told me that he meant what he said.

"Well Dawson, you'll just have to show her you mean that." I said.

"Thanks Mallory, I have to get going now," he stood up and I followed him to the door. "You look really nice by the way; Shane is going to lose his mind." He smiled at me and got into his car. I waved as he drove away.

The house was empty besides me but that was good. There wasn't anyone to bug me while I waited for Shane. He still had 10 minutes before he was late so I turned the TV on. The only thing that was remotely interesting was a documentary about Sparta on the history channel. It started and before I knew it, I was hooked. The doorbell rang three times before I noticed the sound. Oh crap! I switched the TV off and opened the door.

"Hey Mallory." Shane said, smiling at me. It took me a second to get my thoughts together and another to keep myself from dancing around in happiness from seeing him again.

"Hey, sorry about that. I was watching something on the history channel and got sucked in." he laughed. Oh man, he was even more breathtaking when he laughed!

"Shall we?" he said and motioned for me to go first. He was hot and a gentleman? WOW! I smiled and walked towards his car. He unlocked it and opened my door. I got in and waited for him to start the engine.

"So where are we going?" I asked him. It didn't really matter where we went. I'd be happy anywhere as long as I got to be with him.

"It's a surprise." he said. He winked and turned on the radio. He had it tuned to my favorite station. Another thing we had in common. I smiled to myself. A few minutes later we arrived at the small Chinese place in the neighborhood.

"I love this place." I told him when he opened my car door.

"I hoped you would." He said as we walked into the restaurant.

"Table for two?" the host asked. "Or are there more coming?"

"It's just us." Shane told him. He led us to our table and handed us our menus.

"Your server will be right out." The man said and walked away.

"So how long have you lived here?" Shane asked me.

"Oh you know, my whole life." I said, "How long have you known Dawson and Aidan?"

"Oh you know, my whole life." He laughed, copying me. "They're good guys. They're going crazy over your friends Bianca and Corey." I laughed with him. "Well Bianca and Corey are going crazy over them too. Bianca said she kissed Aidan last night, any idea how that happened?" I asked.

"Apparently he helped her stop two guys playing catch with a vase by - quite literally - throwing them out for her."

"Yep that is definitely something that would spark her interest."

"So, why don't we start to get to know each other." he suggested. I looked into his warm eyes.

"Sounds great." I said, smiling.

So we spent the rest of the night doing just that, getting to know each other. When the waitress finally showed up to take our order we had chosen the same drink-Dr. pepper- and the same entrée- sesame seed chicken. We liked the same movies and music. We both loved watching hockey but the only sport we would play was basketball. We both adored tigers and wolves but agreed that vultures were super creepy. When the check came he pay without a second of hesitation and insisted I take the small paper fan (a complementary trinket included with the bill). By the time he brought me home I had decided that it had been the best date of my life. He walked me up to the door and I turned towards him to say goodnight.

"Would you like to see a movie in a few days?" he asked. I smiled widely at the invitation.

"I'd love to, is Thursday ok?" I asked. He nodded.

"Thursday is perfect." He started to turn away. It looked like he was deciding whether or not to say something else. I turned around to unlock the front door and he suddenly took my face in his hands, gently but firmly, and kissed me long and hard till I started to fell lightheaded.

"Goodnight." he said as he pulled away, smiling.

"Goodnight." I said in a small voice, completely stunned. He walked down the stone walkway, toward his car and I went inside. Once I closed the door I ran upstairs to tell Jeremy and then call Corey and Bianca to tell them all about it.


	4. Fun with windows

These Hearts

Chapter 4

"Oh. My. God! Shut up!" Bianca screamed on the phone. I had just started a three way conversation with her and Corey and that was her response to my story. Corey was as stunned as I was.

"I can't believe he kissed you!" Corey said, "That's awesome!"

"I know right! I'm going to a movie with him Thursday." I said, laughing.

"ooooo make out city!" Bianca squealed.

"Oh shut up!" we all howled with laughter.

"Bianca you're so centered on making out, it's not healthy." Corey teased her.

"Speaking of making out," I laughed, "did you see aidan today?"

"Maybe… ok yes! We were locked up in my room for an hour today." She said.

"ooooo!" Corey and I chorused.

"No, no! All we did was talk! Honestly!" she replied.

"So are you two together?" Corey asked.

"Well… we're going out tomorrow so we'll see what happens after that."

"Great!" I said. I heard a click on the other end.

"Guys I need to talk to Brice, can you hurry up?" Jeremy said. He had picked up the other handset.

"JEREMY, GET OFF THE PHONE!!" we yelled in unison.

"Fine. Jeesh!" he said annoyed. We heard the click as he hung up.

"Ok so now that we know Bianca's love life status, what's going on with yours Corey?" I asked.

"Ok I'm in love with Dawson so I'm breaking up with Blake tomorrow." She said, confident and determined.

"Ok then, love life meeting adjourned." I said, "Onto other business." We talked for another hour about pointless stuff like TV and video games, we loved all of it but that stuff wasn't important, well except video games. We planned Corey's 17th birthday party. Eventually mom made me get off the phone because it was after midnight.

I fell asleep thinking about Shane and woke up thinking about him. I danced around the room, insanely happy that it was only one more day till I saw him again. I could still feel his kiss on my lips. Would he kiss me again at the movie? Man I hope so! I took a shower and got dressed for the day. I was going through my purse looking for some gum when someone knocked on my window. OMG! Shane had climbed the tree next to my bedroom window and was sitting on the thick branch that was closest to the window. I looked at him with a confused smile on my face.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I missed you," he said and my heart skipped a few beats.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Um sure." I backed up and he crawled into my room.

"So, as I said, I missed you and I couldn't stop thinking about our kiss last night." He said, moving closer to me.

"Then that makes two of us." I said. He took my face in his hands just like last night and kissed me again. It lasted longer than last night. He was more confident this time. He pulled away and was smiling widely now, I smiled back at him, out of breath. My thoughts were all over the place and my heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

"So," he said, "what are you going to do today?"

"Actually I have no idea." I sat down on the bed and he sat next to me. He took my hand and held it, stroking the back of it with his thumb.

"Well, would you like to go swimming at my house? It's only a block from here." He didn't look up from our hands while he asked this, probably so I couldn't see his face, he sounded nervous.

I started to say that I'd love to but was cut off when someone opened my door.

"Mom says that we are all going shopping and that no is not an option mal." Jeremy informed me then froze when he saw that I wasn't alone. He had on a face that said, 'OMG, OMG, OMG, and OMG!'

"Hello," Shane said, being polite. "I'm Shane." Jeremy shook his head, stunned.

"I'm Jeremy." He said walking in and closed the door behind him. "You're lucky it was me who walked in and not dad mal."

I closed my eyes, sad that the moment Shane and I were having had to end much sooner than I had hoped. I wanted it to last forever.

"Ok Jeremy, tell mom I'll be right down." I said. He nodded and went downstairs.

I turned to Shane and put my head on his chest. He hugged me tight and kissed my cheek.

"I'm sorry. She does this every once in awhile and I can't refuse." I apologized, feeling like I was going to cry.

"Its ok, I'll see you tomorrow." He winked and kissed me once more before he climbed down the tree and walked towards his house. I grabbed my jacket and headed downstairs.

Shopping with mom wasn't as fun as it usually was. I missed Shane too much to enjoy new clothes. But I had to act like I was having fun or mom would start to get nosey. I got two new pairs of shoes and a pair of designer jeans. At least one good thing came out of this shopping trip, now I had more cute clothes to wear in front of Shane. Hah. I smiled at that thought.

I guess I looked too excited just for new shoes because my mom started to get really interested in my plans for tomorrow.

"Tomorrow I'm going to a movie with this guy Shane. Why?" I asked.

"I was just wondering, I knew that smile wasn't about the clothes. So, what's he like? Is it anything serious?" she asked, way too curious.

"Mom, no offence but I really don't feel like talking about boys, I'm super tired. I think I'll go to bed early."

"Ok then, sweet dreams." She said and turned on the TV.

I went up to my room and changed into my silk night gown. I really was exhausted. I lay down and turned the light off. I fell asleep instantly.

I dreamt that Shane and I were sitting on my bed like earlier today. He had my hand in his and was stroking the back of it with his thumb just like before.

"I love you." He said and smiled.

"I love you too." I replied and he kissed me hard. The scene changed and he was alone in his car driving somewhere in the dark. He swerved and crashed into a telephone pole. Ambulances and cop cars surrounded the totaled car. They pulled him into the ambulance but he was cut and bleeding in many places. The ambulance raced away towards the hospital. I saw Zack Wayland. He was laughing! How could he laugh?! He got in his car still chuckling and Shane's car exploded. Zack drove away, smiling even wider now.

"I told you you'd be sorry shane"

I woke up, sweating and gasping for air.

"Just a dream." I said, "Just a dream." I checked the clock; it was 7am so I decided to get up. I took a shower and put on my new jeans and a blue tank top. I didn't know what to make of my nightmare. I could treat it like a premonition, or just right it off as me being nervous about what would happen between Shane and me. I decided it was just nerves and went down to breakfast. I opened my door and immediately forgot all about my dream. It didn't matter once I smelled the wonderful thing mom was making for breakfast. Waffles and bacon. My all time favorite breakfast food. She didn't make it often because of the mess it left behind. I rushed downstairs, eager to get my waffles. I was starving.

"Hey mal." Jeremy greeted me. He was digging in to his waffle and had syrup on his chin. I laughed and wiped his face.

"Hey Jeremy. How are the waffles this morning?"

"Stupid question," He said, "You can't screw up waffles. It's like the holy breakfast. Incapable of error." He held up a bite on his fork, in the sunlight the syrup made it look like it was glowing. We laughed at Jeremy and he smiled. Dad put his paper down as mom gave him his food. I grabbed my breakfast and started to drown my waffle in syrup as usual when my phone beeped telling me that I had a new text. UGH! I ignored it and was about to dive into my food but it beeped again. JEEZ! I looked at my phone (ready to yell if it was Corey or Bianca) and saw who it was. It was Shane! All traces of anger came out of my body as I read the first message.

"Good morning beautiful." That simple message made my heart melt. I opened the second one.

"I think I'll go bird watching today, its so much more fun if you're on a pretty girl's windowsill ;)"

I texted him back.

"Sounds like fun. When are you planning to go?" if he was coming here I had to clean my room. My phone beeped again.

"Oh I don't know, like ten minutes." Time to start rushing. First I had to think of a reply. What could I say? Cool? No that sounded lame. After wasting several minutes on that I settled for "have fun." I wolfed down my food and raced upstairs after telling the family I was planning Corey's party and needed to concentrate so please, no interruptions.

I brushed my teeth and picked the stuff off the floor in my room and made my huge bed. Then I started to pace. What would we do when he got here? I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear him climb the tree. I jumped when he tapped on the glass. I smiled at him and opened the window. He smiled back and came inside. He wrapped me up in a big hug and sighed. I could tell he was smiling even if I couldn't see his face.

"Hey." He said and I laughed.

"Hey." I said. I backed up, took his hand and pulled him towards the bed. We sat down and he leaned in to kiss me but I covered his mouth with my hand and shook my head. He looked at me, confused. I put my hand down.

"2 reasons." I said and held up my fingers, "1, it can't always be that easy for you, and 2, someone could walk in any second."

"ok." He hung his head. He was sad that he couldn't kiss me. I smiled to myself. Oh what the hell. I tackled him so we were laying down, his head on my pillow, he looked completely shocked. I smiled and kissed him hard. It got pretty heated from there. We rolled around on my king sized bed, only breaking apart to breathe about every five minutes. We rolled over one last time and he was on top of me, his hand on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him. My hands were on the back of his head, fingers braided through his hair. WOW. My first make out session, now I knew why Bianca was always talking about it. It was great! We pulled apart and I looked into his beautiful grey blue eyes and smiled.

"I love you." He blurted out.

"What?" I said, he had stunned me yet again. His expression changed from insanely happy to very, very upset.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry." He started to get up, still apologizing. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back to me, crushing my lips to his. I smiled at him.

"I love you too." I said.

"Really?" he asked.

"Really, really." He smiled widely and kissed me all over my face and I laughed at how cute he was.

Corey's point of view

Ok, this is it. Blake and I were in the middle of the mall and there were lots of people around so he couldn't do anything drastic, you never knew with pot-heads. Ok. It's time. I took a deep breath.

"Blake," I began, "I'm breaking up with you, I am in love with someone else." He looked mad.

"No you're not. You're staying with me and you're going to tell that loser to fuck off." I couldn't believe him! Like any of that was going to happen!

"You're insane! We are through! Goodbye." I turned and tried to walk away but he grabbed me and spun me around to face him. He was holding me too tight, using all his strength, hurting me. He just kept squeezing my arms tighter when I tried to get away. I head butted him and kneed him in the groin. He let go and I ran towards the front entrance. He had fallen when I had kicked him but I knew he would recover quickly. I got outside and kept running.

"Corey!" I heard a girl call my name. I stopped and looked to see who it was. Bianca! She was standing by the big fountain, a hundred and fifty feet away, with Aidan and Dawson by her side. Thank God! I saw Bianca's expression change to horrified and Dawson ran towards me. I turned around and Blake punched me in the face, hard. I fell backwards onto the stone floor of the courtyard. I heard Bianca scream my name. I tried to get up but fell back down before I got to my knees. I was helpless. That's when I saw Dawson. He ran up and punched Blake right between the eyes. Blake flew back a few feet and landed on the ground hard, knocked out. Dawson came and picked me up, one arm under my legs and the other around my shoulders. I felt safe in his arms. I buried my face in his chest.

"Are you ok?" he whispered to me.

"Now that you're holding me I am." I said, "Dawson, I have to tell you something." He nodded.

"Go ahead, I'm listening." He said.

"Blake was like that because I was breaking up with him, because I love someone other than him." I looked into his emerald eyes. "Dawson, I love you."

"Really?" he asked. I nodded. He smiled and kissed me. "I've wanted to do that for awhile." He said, smiling. I smiled too and kissed him back.


	5. Can nightmares be real?

These hearts

Chapter 5

Shane and I spent the rest of the day locked in my room. We talked most of the time, occasionally I would tackle him and we would start all over. We played a bunch of card games including five card draw and black jack. He left an hour before our movie date. When he left I tried to call Corey and Bianca but Corey was busy. Bianca filled me in on what had happened this afternoon.

"Wow. You miss a lot when you're locked in a room with a gorgeous guy all day." I said and Bianca laughed. "I got to go, have to get ready for my date." I said.

"ya me too." She said.

"Ok bye woman." She laughed.

"Bye chick." I hung up and decided to keep the jeans but switched the blue tank top for a red one and changed into my black heals. The only jewelry I was going to wear was a pair of garnet ear rings and a black bracelet. I sprayed on the perfume Jeremy had gotten me and put on my jean jacket. Shane had just pulled up in his car. I opened my door and saw Jeremy standing in front of it, his hand was raised like he was about to knock and he looked upset. I forgot about Shane and focused on my little brother.

"Hey, what's wrong Jeremy?" I knelt down so I was eye level with him.

"nothing." He said. He wouldn't look at me. I could only see one of his eyes and it was filling up with tears. Oh Jeremy! I gave him a big hug and he lost his focus on not crying. The tears ran down his face.

"Come on Jeremy, tell me what's wrong." I said, still holding him.

"I'm losing my big sister to some guy." He said.

"Jeremy." I said as I pulled him away so I could look him in the eye, "you're not going to lose me. I'm your big sis and I'll always be here."

He wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Good, then do you promise to tell me what you were really doing all day?" of course he knew that my excuse this morning was completely fake. That's what you get for having a genius for a little brother.

"sure." I said, "as soon as I get back from the movies." I took a tissue from my purse and dried his eyes.

"Tell Shane I said to keep his hands to himself." I laughed and kissed his forehead. He went into his room and I went outside to meet Shane.

The drive to the theater was nice. We held hands the whole time and at each stop sign he gave me a quick kiss. We decided on seeing transformers 2, an action movie with just enough romance in it for a date. The movie had been in theaters for awhile so only one other person was in there with us but he left when it started, probably in the wrong room. So I was alone with Shane, in a dark movie theater. I could see him staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned and smiled at him. He leaned in for a kiss and I stopped him like earlier.

"Jeremy told me to tell you to keep your hands to yourself." I said, "you must be bored with kissing by now anyway right?" he thought about that for a minute.

"Seeing how I could kiss you every minute of eternity and still want more, I'm going to have to go with no. so you'll have to tell Jeremy sorry for me." he tried kissing me again but I stopped him this time too. I gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Watch the movie." I said. He slumped in his seat.

"Fine, but just so you know if you feel like kissing me while we're here you're out of luck. You're not the only one that can hold out on someone." He said. Oh really? Well we'll just see about that, you're will power is weaker than mine.

I decided to wait a little while first to weaken his defenses before making my move. About half way through the movie he started staring again. Now was perfect. I reached for his hand and let one of my tank top straps fall off my shoulder. I saw his mouth twitch. Phase 1, complete. I put my head on his shoulder and rubbed his arm with my finger tips; he shivered and started squirming in his seat. Done with phase 2, starting phase 3, Time to finish this. Just in time too, the couple in the movie were about to start a kissing scene. Hehehe, this is too easy. I put my lips close to his ear.

"That could be us right now you know." I whispered. I pulled back a few inches to look in his eyes, brushing my lips against his cheek as I went. There was obviously a war going on inside his head. One part wanted to give up and kiss me, and the other part still wanted to prove that he could hold out too. I winked at him and the kiss me part won. He moved fast, he slammed the arm rest that separated our seats up into its place and slid me onto his lap in about one millisecond.

"You little cheater." He whispered in my ear and I giggled. Then his lips found mine. It was the best kiss anyone could imagine. It was full of passion and need but most importantly, love.

We carried on that way, me in his lap and him holding me tight so I couldn't leave him (but honestly, who would want to leave this?) for the rest of the movie.

He drove me home and I blew him a kiss as I went inside. I ran up to my room to see him drive away but he was in the tree not his car. I shook my head and opened the window.

"You can't come in." I said but I smiled at him.

"Well can I at least have a kiss goodnight" he asked.

"Can't you wait?"

"Hmmm, no." I laughed and leaned out the window. He leaned the rest of the way and gave me a quick kiss.

"I love you." He said, smiling.

"I love you too." I smiled back at him, "good night."

"night." He went down the tree and drove away.

I went and told Jeremy everything like I promised earlier (I edited out some parts of course) after that I changed and fell asleep thinking about our date. I dreamt about Bianca's party and meeting him. When I woke up I took a shower and tried to plan out my day. I had left my phone on my bed when I had gone to take a shower; it beeped when I came out of my bathroom. I picked it up and looked to see who had texted me. Shane! Yay!!

"Good morning love." I started to text back.

"Good morning." I replied.

"Guess what." He said.

"What?"

"My parents are out of town and I was wondering if you would like to go for a late night swim?" I thought about that for a second.

"I don't know… you and me, alone in a pool, at night. I already feel like we kiss too much already." It was true, if we kept that up soon we'd be locked in my room all day every day and we wouldn't exactly be playing board games. He didn't reply for a few minutes.

"I promise not to touch you, unless you change your mind that is." I smiled.

"Ok I'll come, what time?"

"11?" he said, more of a question than a statement.

"Hmmm, I'll have to sneak out. I don't know if I can climb down that tree in the dark."

"I'll walk over and help you."

"Ok then, see you at 11"

"See you then."

I decided to go see how Corey was doing. When I drove up I didn't hear her music. Good sign. I walked into her house and up to her room. I opened her door and saw Corey and Dawson on her bed making out. I closed my eyes and backed out the door.

"Oh my god!" Corey looked at me

"Mallory!" she exclaimed, surprised to see me. Dawson looked embarrassed, I couldn't blame him. If Corey had walked in on me and Shane I would have turned the color of a tomato. I ran into the hall and Corey followed me. I was happy for her but that doesn't mean I wanted to see it!

"Mallory wait." I stopped and turned to her.

"Corey, I'm glad you and Dawson are together but I really, really didn't want to see that. Now it's in my head and won't go away!"

"Don't worry. The image will fade; trust me I've caught Bianca making out loads of times."

"If you say so," I shook my head, trying to dispel the picture burned into my brain. "I came to see if you were ok, guess I got my answer." She laughed.

"ya, I'm great."

"These boys sure do work fast."

"I know! But even though I haven't known him long, I'm positive that I love him. It was like love at first sight for all of us." I nodded, it was exactly like that.

"Ok, well you go back to Dawson and I'm going to go buy a bathing suit." She started to ask why but I stopped her.

"I'll tell you later." She nodded and went back to her room. I left and went to the mall.

I tried on countless bikinis before buying a black one with light blue flowers on it. By the time I had paid for it, it was 7:30 pm. I went home and ate dinner then watched hockey with Jeremy. Colorado and Detroit were playing, and Colorado won by five points. We raced with his remote control cars, I beat him three times.

"Aww, man." He sulked.

"Sorry Jeremy, but you never had a chance." He went up to his room, still moping. I checked the time. 10:50. I went upstairs and put on my new bikini then put a t-shirt and shorts on over it. A rock came through my open window; I looked outside and saw Shane on my lawn. I rolled my eyes.

"That is so cheesy." I said. He laughed and I started to climb down, taking it slow. I made it a quarter of the way down and was doing well. I put my foot down and was about to grab the next branch when my foot slipped on the wet leaves. I fell nearly 25 feet; it was a very tall tree. I let out a short scream then Shane caught me. He held me tight and didn't set me down. He started walking towards his house, still carrying me.

"Are you going to carry me to your house?" I asked.

"yep." He said, looking straight ahead. He had an odd look on his face. I put my hand on his cheek.

"What's wrong?" I asked him quietly. He stopped walking, took a deep breath and looked down at me.

"Promise you won't scare me like that again." he said. I put my arms around his neck and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Don't worry; as long as I'm with you I'll be fine."

He carried me the rest of the way to his house and set me down on a beach chair. He took his shirt off, already wearing swim trunks.

"I'll be right back. You going to be ok?" he asked. I smiled at him and nodded. He walked inside the house. I took off my t-shirt and shorts and took my hair out of the pony tail. I took a deep breath and saw him come back carrying a stack of towels. I saw his eyes bug out for a minute when he looked at me. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He walked over to me and put the towels on the table next to my chair.

"You're really not making it easy to resist kissing you." he said. He held out his hand and I took it, standing up. I leaned in close to him, smiled, and rubbed his arms.

"You know, I could always change my mind about that." He leaned in for a kiss but I ran and dove into the pool. When I came up he was at the edge with his arms crossed over his chest and he was shaking his head at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're in trouble now." He said and jumped in the water. When he came up I dunked him and swam away. He chased me, trying to dunk me back. He caught my hand and pulled me close to him. I put my hands on his shoulders and he had his on my hips.

"Remind me again why I'm not aloud to kiss you." He leaned his forehead against mine.

"Because, I feel like that's the only thing you love about me." I said and looked away, closing my eyes. He hugged me, putting his cheek on the top of my head, stroking my hair.

"Oh, Mallory. I love you because you're kind, caring, beautiful, and we have tons of stuff in common. I kiss you all the time because I was taught that when you love someone you should show them every moment of every day." He pulled my face towards his, making me look at him. He looked into my eyes.

"Mallory, I love you." I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. We fell back into the water.

"Did you really change your mind or are you just messing with me again?" he asked. I kissed him again.

"What do you think?" I said, still kissing him, he smiled.

We swam around for awhile, talking about our child hood, sharing stories and laughing. I showed him a trick I had learned when Bianca and I used to do synchronized swimming. You were supposed to do two front flips, twirl in the air and end with a dive. His diving board was only high enough for one flip, the twirl and the dive. When I came up he was in front of me.

"Have I told you how amazing you are?" he said, he put my hair behind my ear and I smiled up at him.

"Hmmm, I don't know. Think you could show me?" I asked, putting my hands on his chest.

"I would, but it's late. I should get you home." He took my hand and guided me out of the water. I dried off and put my shorts and t-shirt back on.

"It's only two." I said, drying my hair with the towel.

"I know, come on I'll drive you." I rolled my eyes and let him lead me to his car.

"You don't need to drive me; it's only a block away."

"I want to, plus aren't you exhausted?" he said.

"Well maybe." I said. He smiled at me and soon pulled up to the curb in front of my house.

"I don't trust you to be able to climb that tree." He said, getting out of the car, I followed him.

"Are you coming up with me?" I asked, hugging him.

"I'll be right behind you." he said, he gave me a quick kiss and turned me towards the tree. I smiled to myself. See, I knew I could climb up the tree, I had been doing that for years, he didn't know that though, hehehe. I sped up the tree and leaned out my window. I smiled at his shocked face.

"Climbing up the tree wasn't the problem." I said, "Now getting down is a different story." He laughed while he climbed into my room. I pulled him over to my bed and sat down. He took my hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb; I was used to that move. It was nice, comfortable.

"I love you." He said.

"I love you too." I replied and he kissed me hard.

"Get some sleep; I'll talk to you tomorrow." He said and went out the window. I walked over to the window and leaned out. He was at the bottom of the tree already.

"Good night." I whispered.

"Good night, my love." He got in his car and drove back towards his house. Once he was out of sight I sat on my windowsill, looking at the stars. I heard the screech of tires and the loud bang as the car crashed. I froze.

No.


	6. Orderlies run scared

These Hearts

Chapter 6

I raced down the tree and sprinted down the street, dialing 911 while I ran. I arrived at the crash site and ran to the drivers' side of the car, I yanked it open. He was sitting back, his head leaning forward. There was a gash in his head and several others on his body. I pulled him out of the seat and laid him down a little ways away from the car. I tried to remember what we learned in health class about what to do after a car crash. I checked his pulse, good pulse. I made sure he was breathing, and then I was stumped. He opened his eyes and stared at me, I don't think he knew what was happening. I looked into his eyes and realized I was crying.

"You're going to be fine you hear me, just fine." I told him.

I tore the sleeve off my shirt and tried to stop his head from bleeding. The ambulance came followed by cop cars. They put him on the stretcher and loaded him in the ambulance; I grabbed his hand and climbed in with him. I wasn't going to leave his side till cops had to hold me down. I looked out the window and saw the car explode. I looked back at Shane; his eyes were closed once more. I started crying again, and brushed his hair out of his eyes. I dialed Bianca's number and woke her up.

"You better have a good reason for waking me up mal." She said, annoyed. I didn't care if she was upset with me; all I cared about right now was Shane.

"Shane was in a car accident. We are on our way to the hospital now." I said, still crying.

"Oh my god! Don't worry, Shane will be fine. I'll get everyone and we'll meet you there. Don't worry."

"Thank you. I love you B."

"I love you too mal." She said. I hung up and after 15 more minutes we finally arrived. Hospital staff hauled Shane out of the ambulance and I followed, still holding his hand. Doctors rushed him into a room but an orderly blocked me from going in with him.

"Sorry miss but you can't go in there." He said.

"I have to be in there with him." I insisted, trying to get around him.

"Sorry but you can't. You'll have to stay in the waiting room." He tried guiding me away but I tackled him to the ground.

I had to be in there!

Another orderly came to back him up. I was about to punch him in the face but four hands pulled me back, Bianca and Corey. I saw Dawson and Aidan standing behind them. The girls pulled me into a hug and I fell into them, sobbing. The boys led us into the waiting room and we sat down. I immediately stood up again and started pacing. Tears still running down my face I desperately tried to think of something else, like shopping or sailing with my dad but nothing worked. I looked at Dawson and Aidan, they had known Shane their whole lives, they must be 10 times more worried than I was. I sat down between them and put a hand on each of their shoulders. Dawson gave me a hug followed by Aidan.

"He's going to be ok Mallory." Aidan said.

"Yep he's a fast healer mally." Dawson added. I just nodded and a doctor came in.

"Mallory storm?" he asked. I stood up and my friends followed my lead.

"I'm Mallory storm." I said, "How's Shane?"

"He broke his arm and has quite a lot of stitches but he's going to be fine." The girls hugged me and then turned to hug their boyfriends.

"So can we see him?" I asked and he nodded.

"Yes, but only one at a time." He said and waited for us to choose who would go in first. I turned to them.

"So who's going first?" I asked. Dawson and Aidan were like his brothers, I figured it was up to them who got to see him first.

"You are." They said simultaneously.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." They nodded together. I gave them all hugs and then followed the doctor down the hall into Shane's room. When I walked through the door I ran to his side. The doctor left me alone with him. Shane had bandages every where. His left arm was in a cast and I guessed that his whole body would be bruised from head to toe. I sat in the chair next to his bed and took his hand, stroking the back of it like he usually did with me. I saw his eyelids twitch and I leaned in closer to him and called his name softly. His eyes slowly opened and I started crying yet again.

"Mallory, what happened?" he asked in a weak voice. "Why are you crying?" he reached up with his good arm and wiped the tears off my cheek but new ones immediately replaced them.

"You were in a car crash; I pulled you out and took care of you until the ambulance came. You broke your arm and have stitches all over the place."

"Mal that just means I won't be doing any serious activities for a little while, don't cry." He said but the tears just kept coming.

"I thought I was going to lose you." I let go of his hand and started pacing again, "you were only half way conscious, your head was gushing blood and I didn't know if you had broken anything. I didn't know anything! Remember how you felt when you saw me falling out of the tree and multiply it by a billion and then add an explosion. Then you'll know how I feel." I was crying even more now.

"Mal, come back." He said. I sat down and took his hand again, looking away from him.

"Will you please look at me love?" I looked up slowly.

"Ok listen; I get hurt all the time. Yes, this time was more serious than the last but I'll heal. I can't tell you I know how you feel but I can tell you that you will never lose me. I love you and I'm not going anywhere." He said.

"I love you too." I leaned in close, careful not to hurt him and kissed him gently.

"I have to go, my turn to visit you is over. Dawson, aidan, Bianca, and Corey are all waiting."

"They can wait. Besides you, my sweet, aren't going anywhere until you kiss me again." he said, winking. I laughed.

"I hate to break it to you but you're in a hospital bed that means I'm in control."

"You always were babe."

I leaned down and kissed him again then walked towards the door.

"Don't go mal." He pleaded.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon." I blew him a kiss and walked out to let the next one in.

Everyone got their turn and they went home at around 5 a.m. once they were gone I went back to his room and lay on the couch. I had planned on waiting for him to wake up but ended up passing out a little while later. When I woke up he was sitting up in bed, watching TV.

"Good morning beautiful." He said when I sat up.

"Good morning, what time is it?" I asked while I put my hair up in a pony tail.

"10:30, when did you fall asleep?"

"I think it was around 6." I said as I walked up to him. "how did you sleep?" I asked. He smiled and turned the TV off.

"I slept great, of course everyone sleeps great when they're being drugged." I kissed him with as much force as I thought he could handle right now.

"That's really interesting." I said, still kissing him. Without thinking I put my hand on his chest and leaned even closer.

"ow!" Shane winced and I jumped back. Crap! I covered my mouth and backed up farther.

"I'm sorry! I can't believe I hurt you, I'm so, so sorry!" I sat on the couch and put my head in my hands.

"Mallory, calm down. I'm fine." I peeked through my fingers and saw he was still sitting up. "Come back and let's try that again." I shook my head. What was he thinking?!

"No way. I'm not kissing you again till you're all better. And I mean no more stitches or anything." I stayed where I was on the couch.

"This cast won't be off for weeks!" he protested, "we won't last that long! We won't even last the week till the stitches are out."

"Fine, just until the stitches come out though. You might not last but I have motivation, there is no way I'm going to hurt you again." I lay back on the couch, "you just stay on your side of the room and I'll stay on mine. We'll make it." I saw him roll his eyes and swing his legs out of bed.

"What are you doing? Get back in bed." I told him but he ignored me and walked towards the couch. He sat down and leaned forward and I pulled away. He put his hand on my cheek.

"Shane don't." he stopped and frowned.

"Why not mal?"

"I don't want to hurt you again." He leaned in closer and I shrunk back against the arm of the couch.

"If I promise to be careful will you give up?"

"I'm worried that I'll get too into it and hurt you like before. I seriously need better self control." He leaned in even closer, trapping me.

"I think you have great self control." He said and smiled. I was so close to losing it right now. I covered my mouth and he gave up, sighing, he pulled away.

"Shane, I love you. Please don't make me hurt you."

"Mal you won't hurt me." he turned my face toward his.

"Ok, I've got to go. I'll give you one last kiss but that's it till your stitches come out."

"If you say so." He smiled. I can't believe I let him win! He leaned in close and kissed me. I was careful to only touch the back of his neck. I can't believe I was giving this up for an entire week! I let out a small groan that I had been trying to hold in. he smiled against my lips.

"Are you sure you want to give this up for an entire week? Think about it mal, really think about it." He kissed me again, a very convincing kiss. I shivered, time to go! I pushed him away, gently of course, and got up.

"Ok perve, I'm leaving." I said. He looked sad so I lifted his chin up and kissed him one last time, softly.

"I'll be back in an hour, can I bring you anything from the outside world?" he nodded.

"One Mallory storm who is willing to make out with her boyfriend." I laughed, blew him a kiss and called him a perve once more as I walked out.

I went home and took a shower, changed clothes and got something real to eat. Jeremy was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey mom, where's Jeremy?"

"He met a girl. He's out at the lake with her right now, he said that her name is Rachel." She said, smiling. Aww, good for Jeremy! So he liked Aidan's little sister. I wonder what Aidan will think about that. I gathered some stuff for Shane and called Bianca to see what she was up to. She answered it on the first ring.

"Hey B, what's up?"

"Well, Corey and I are going to take the boys to a movie to distract them. They're pretty upset that Shane isn't out of what they like to call 'medical prison' yet. Want to come?" she asked.

"No thanks. I'm going to keep Shane company. Have fun without us." I said.

"You know it won't be as fun without you. Oh well, talk to you later chick."

"Bye woman."

Back at the hospital Shane was asleep so I picked up the remote and settled down to wait. A marathon of my favorite show was starting so I clicked that. After the fifth episode I started to get bored. I looked through the bag of stuff I had brought for Shane and found my psp and my ipod. I turned on my video game play list and put my ratchet and clank game in and focused on killing aliens. Before I knew it an hour had passed. I looked up and saw Shane awake, watching me play. I took out my headphones and turned off the psp.

"Welcome back from videogame land, how was it?" he asked. I smiled at him.

"Very entertaining." I said, I grabbed the bag and went over to him. I kissed his cheek.

"What's in the bag?" he asked.

"Stuff to keep you from going insane from boredom while you're here." I said.

"Mal you know me, I only need one thing to keep me from losing it and I happen to be in love with her." He said, smiling. I laughed at him.

"If you thought that was going to get me to kiss you, you're already crazy."

"Damn, I was sure that was going to work." He sulked.

"Look, I brought you some comic books, a laptop, and some games I got when I broke my arm last year that you can easily play with one hand."

"This is all your stuff?" he asked.

"ya." I admitted.

"I'm dating a nerd." He said, surprised. If he hadn't been injured I would have slapped him for that.

"Well I'm dating a perve. Oh and you just lost major points. Just for that, I might never kiss you again." He took my hand and kissed it, I took it away before he could work his magic on me.

"Instead of focusing on ways to get me to kiss you play videogames. Besides, there's no chance that any of your plans will work."

"Just wait mal, I'll get you sometime. You want to kiss me too, you're just in denial." He said and I shook my head.

"I'm not in denial." I said, leaning closer to him, "quite the opposite actually, I know I want to kiss you. I just choose not to." I backed away before he could catch me.

"Oh Mallory. Sweet, sweet Mallory. Why must you torture me this way?" I laughed silently at his expression.

"Shane it's only a week. You'll live through it." He sighed.

"I know. That doesn't mean I have to like it." I kissed his cheek and smiled.

"Ok so we'll each take a comic book and stay on our separate sides of the room." He rolled his eyes and picked up one of the many books.

We read comic books for awhile, talking about how I'm a nerd and how he's a perve.

"You only think I'm a perve because I love kissing my girlfriend. Is that really such a bad thing?" he argued his point.

"No it's not a bad thing, but I will not be responsible for hurting you so you just have to wait." I said, flipping through the TV channels.

"You know something mal, it doesn't help when you're always wearing tank tops around me. Oh and then I have to think about what you're doing out in the real world with healthy guys all over the place, and anyone can tell what they're thinking about. You're too tempting." He said.

"I never thought about it that way. I guess I understand you're side of the argument." I moved from the couch over to his bedside chair. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you win." He sighed and kissed my cheek.

"I know. I've accepted that you won't really kiss me for six more days."

"Hey, at least I'm not waiting till the cast comes off." I said and he smiled a little at that.

"Yes, at least there's that." I thought about telling him that he wasn't the only one suffering but that would make him try to get me to give up again.

"The guys told me you beat up an orderly. What did he do to deserve that?" he asked, taking my hand like he usually did. I looked down.

"He wouldn't let me stay with you. I would have beaten up more but Corey and Bianca grabbed me."

"You're incredible. See, there are more reasons why I love you. You're so strong and determined." He said making me blush. I kissed his cheek, wishing that the next six days would go into fast forward mode. Unfortunately they went into slow motion.

I spent most of my time with Shane. He was forced to stay at the hospital till the stitches came out. During the short time periods I was away Jeremy and I talked about Rachel. They seemed to have fun together. Aidan was not as thrilled for them as I was but he lightened up after a little while. When I woke up on the last day Shane was awake and he was bouncing up and down in his bed. I laughed and came towards him.

"Don't you think you're a little too excited? I mean, its only kissing." I said.

"It's not just kissing. It's kissing you my love. That's what I like about it." He said, smiling with anticipation. I laughed again and kissed his forehead. The doctor walked in and smiled at us.

"Alright Mr. Thorn, its time to take those stitches out."

"Great! Lets do this." The doctor gave him a weird look and I laughed to myself.

"Ok, I'll be in the cafeteria. Text me when you're ready to leave ok." I said, I was driving him home.

"Alright, see you soon." He said and I walked downstairs to the cafeteria.

I thought it was going to be awhile before they were finished, he had tons of stitches, but it was only 20 minutes before he texted me. I got up to the room and he was in his normal clothes on instead of the hospital gown and he only had a few small scars. He wrapped me up in his arms and held me close.

"All the stitches are gone now." He said and put his forehead against mine.

"I see that, so there's no way I could hurt you now right?" I asked.

"Nope. Absolutely no way."

"Well then, what should we do now?" I asked while putting my arms around his neck.

"I have a few ideas." He kissed me and I kissed him back, hard. I braided my fingers in his hair and pulled him closer. I had really missed this!

"Wow mal." He said, catching his breath.

"What? Do you think you're the only one who suffered the past week?" he smiled at me, and then kissed me softly. He took my hand and pulled me towards the door.

"Let's get out of her." He towed me through the hall.

"You're so pushy! Where are we going anyway?" I asked when we got to my car.

"Well, do you want to go to my house or yours?" he got in the front seat and I started the car.

"My house, definitely my house." when we got there nobody else was home. Sweet! We walked up to my room and started kissing again. We fell on the bed and I knocked my alarm clock off my nightstand. I tried to go pick it up but Shane grabbed my arm and held it against the pillow my head was laying on.

"I should really get that." I said, trying to get up again, he just pulled me back.

"No, you really shouldn't" he said, still kissing me. I rolled on top of him, kissed him quickly and got up to retrieve the dropped item that had rolled under the bed.

"That was a sneaky move mal." Shane said, leaning on his elbow. Instead of my alarm clock, I picked up a rock that was next to it. There was a note wrapped around it.

"What's that?" he asked, I shook my head.

"I don't know." I sat on the bed and we read the note together.

You should have gone out with me when you had the chance. Now you and all the people you care about will pay for it. That crash was only the beginning. 07/14/09. The same day as the crash.


	7. Big brains dumb actions

These hearts

Chapter 7

"Oh my god! Shane what am I going to do?" he took my hand as I tried to get up and pulled me back onto the bed. He looked straight into my eyes.

"Where's Jeremy?" he asked. Jeremy!

"I have no idea!" he was #1 on my speed dial. I called and he answered after a few rings.

"Hey mally, what's up?" he asked.

"Jeremy, where are you?" I asked him, he had to get home. Now!

"I'm at the lake with Rachel. What's wrong?"

"Just stay there; I'm coming to get you. Don't move, ok."

"Ok mal." He said, he sounded worried.

"See you soon." I turned to see Shane on the phone. I guessed that he was telling the boys all about it. He followed me as I went to the car. We drove to the lake and immediately spotted Jeremy and Rachel. They got in and we headed straight home. We came into the house and went to the living room. Shane had called everyone and they were on their way here.

"Jeremy, where're mom and dad?" I asked.

"They went on their annual trip to Italy with Bianca and Corey's parents like they do every summer." He said. Of course! Ok at least they were safe.

"Right. Ok you two stay here, Shane and I need to talk about something." we left the room and went upstairs to my bedroom. Once the door closed he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight.

"Shane, I can't lose any of you guys. I love you all too much." I started to cry.

"We're all going to be fine. We'll stay together, watch each others backs. No one is going to get hurt. I love you Mallory storm, and I'm not going to let anyone harm you."

"I love you too." We had one kiss and then heard Bianca, Corey and the guys come inside. I grabbed the note and we went downstairs to face them.

"Mal, can you remember anyone that asked you out in the past couple of weeks?" Dawson asked.

"Let's see, well there's Zack Wayland, Erick Shaw, Ryan Andrews, Paul Redford and Corey's brother Evan. I said yes to Zack though."

"Wow, I didn't realize how much competition I had." Shane said looking at me. I turned and smiled at him.

"Ok so we can rule out Zack then." Dawson said. I shook my head at him.

"Not necessarily." I told them about my dream and how the car accident had happened exactly the same way.

"Why didn't you tell us about that mal?" Corey demanded to know. Shane looked like he wanted to ask that same question.

"I don't know but the point is we can't rule him out just yet, even if I did say yes."

"Ok well Evan is in Spain." Corey said.

"ya but he wouldn't do this anyway. The note says "all the people you care about" and I care about you and you're his twin."

"Ok so Evan's out. What about the rest?" Aidan asked.

"Well I know for certain that Ryan and Paul went to Switzerland together. They're best friends so they vacation together every year." Bianca said.

"How do you know that?" Jeremy asked.

"We talk all the time, he's a good guy."

"So what about Erick?" Dawson asked.

"Well when I tutored him second semester he was really sweet. I don't think he would do something like this." I said. Shane spoke up for the first time.

"How did they react when you turned them down?" he asked. I had to think about that for a minute.

"The only ones that took it hard were Evan and Paul. Paul got really sad but Evan got very angry."

"Evan never gets angry." Corey said, surprised by her brothers unusual reaction.

"I was stunned too." I said.

"Why is he in Spain?" Shane asked.

"He's part of golf tournaments all over the world." Corey told him.

"Ok from now on no one goes anywhere alone." Shane almost ordered. They all nodded in understanding.

"I'm sending Rachel to our grandparent's house." Aidan said.

"Good idea, Jeremy you're going to nanny's house in Florida." I told him.

"No I can help catch this guy!" he protested.

"You're my little brother; he's going to go after you the first chance he gets!"

"Mal," Bianca said, "Jeremy is a genius. You know as well as I do that we are going to need his help."

"She's right mal, we need him here." Shane agreed.

"Fine, but if he's staying he's going to be guarded 24/7." They all nodded. "He'll go after Bianca and Corey next." I said.

"Dawson and I will be guarding them." Aidan said hugging Bianca to his side.

"They'll be fine. Now you and I need to go to the police and tell them everything." Shane said.

"We'll take care of the kids." Corey said.

"Ok let's go." I said.

Having almost no other cases the police made this top priority. They asked the same questions and we gave the same answers. They seemed to think that Shane's car had been tampered with before his accident.

"Good. I'm a great driver, there is no way I'm responsible for that crash. I've never even gotten a ticket." Shane said. I elbowed him lightly in his chest.

"Quit bragging." I whispered.

"Well miss storm, we'll call you if we find out anything. Don't worry we'll catch this guy in no time." I nodded and Shane guided me out of the police station.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked him.

"Well is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" lets see there is a psycho out there who wants to hurt everyone I love. I don't think so Shane!

"No Shane, I'm fine." I said, getting in my car.

"Come on mal," he said taking my hand. "Just let me help."

"I'm fine. Really, the police are going to catch the guy and no one is going to get hurt." ya right.

He didn't seem to believe that I was really ok; he could read me so well. He could also tell that he wasn't going to get me to tell the truth so he dropped it.

"fine." He said.

We got to the house and walked to the door. As much as I loved all the people inside, I wanted nothing more than to stay out here with him. He moved to open the door; I grabbed his hand to stop him.

"Wait. We only have a minute before they know we're here." He smiled and kissed me softly but that wasn't what I wanted. I deepened the kiss and put my hands on the back of his neck, holding him close to me.

He paused for a second (stunned) but recovered quickly. After a minute or two I unwillingly pulled away. I wished I could bring him up to my room where we could be alone for hours but now was not the time.

We went inside and saw that Brice had been added to the group, good I cared about him too.

"Hey guys, how did it go?" Aidan asked.

"They made it their top priority, everyone is working on it. Also they're inspecting the car accident."

"Well I say we go visit Zack and find out if he's behind all of this." Bianca said, standing up.

"How do you plan to do that?" Aidan asked, stand up with her. She had a wicked smile on her face.

"By beating it out of him of course." she said this like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You couldn't hurt a fly." He said. Oh bad move aid, very bad move!

"Oh please! I could kick your ass, in face we all could. You saw mal take down that orderly. I can't believe you think I'm a helpless little girl!" she pushed him back onto the couch and stormed up to my room slamming the door. He was two steps behind her.

"Bianca wait!" he said, "you know I don't think that! We heard him knocking on my door trying to get her to forgive him. That wasn't going to happen soon. You see, as girly as Bianca is, she absolutely hates it when people think of her as a helpless girl. Aidan was in big trouble.

"Aidan she isn't listening to you." I said, and he came down moping.

"Get used to silence buddy, she won't be talking to you for awhile." Corey said. He hung his head.

"Don't worry man." Dawson said.

"ya, how long can she stay mad?" Shane added. I got up from where we were sitting together. He tried to hold my hand but I yanked it away from him.

"He assumed she couldn't fight because she's a girl. Tell me that's not messed up. She'll be mad for awhile."

"That's not how I thought about it." Aidan said.

"Well aid, that's what it seemed like and that's what Bianca thinks." I told him.

"Oh damn!" he ran up to my room and tried to get her to forgive him again. She opened the door and he nearly fell backwards when she suddenly kissed him. I went back to Shane with a smile.

"Sweet, my plan worked." I said. Shane and Dawson looked confused, only Corey understood.

"Depending on how much she likes you Bianca decides how long to ignore you. So I guess with Aidan that it would only be a few minutes till she forgave him. So when it was time I got him back up there. You can never say I don't love my friends." I explained tot hem, Corey smiled. Shane put his arm around me and kissed my cheek.

"We love you too mal!" Bianca yelled from upstairs.

"Is it ok if I leave?" Corey asked.

"Only if you bring me with you." Dawson replied. She had a fake exasperated look on her face.

"Oh alright." She took his hand and smiled, they walked out and I sat closer to Shane. Aidan and Bianca were still in my room.

"So the kids are in Jeremy's room, aid and Bianca are upstairs. We're all alone." I leaned closer to him and he smiled. I kissed him once, softly. We lay down on the couch and he started kissing me gently but soon started to deepen the kisses. He slipped his hand a few inches under my shirt and my eyes flew open. Ok wow! Do I want this? I don't know! Well Mallory, lets try it and if we don't like it I'll stop him.

I tangled my fingers in his hair and he moved his hand a few inches higher. Getting impatient I pulled him closer and he went for it. I jumped slightly at his touch but was surprised when I liked it. He lifted his head to look at me.

"Are you ok?" he asked. I nodded and pulled him back to me. I groaned softly and he smiled against my lips. Then I remembered the kids. My eyes flew open and I sat up. Crap!

"Stop!" I said, standing up. As usual he pulled me back to him.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?" he asked, pushing hair out of my face.

"no." I said, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek, "you didn't do anything wrong but the kids could walk in any minute."

"Oh, right, I forgot about them." We went up to Jeremy's room to check on them, and only saw Brice and Rachel.

"Where's Jeremy?" I asked, they looked at each other but didn't say anything. I went to my room and brought Bianca and Aidan, they would definitely be able to get it out of them. Aidan tried first.

"Rachel if you don't tell us where he is I'll take away your ipod, psp, laptop, and all of your makeup." Her eyes bugged out but she shook her head.

"Alright, you're up Bianca." He said, "Good luck."

"I don't need luck." She said, Brice was already shaking and she got right up in his face.

"Brice if you don't tell me where he went, I have the power to make your life miserable. No tool box, no games and no TV, for the rest of your life." He snapped.

"He snuck out to go spy on Zack. He tied a sheet to the bed post and went out the window." I fell back into Shane.

How could someone so smart be so stupid?!

I sprinted down the stairs and out the door. I thought about calling him first but then trashed that idea. If I called him he could be caught. But how would I find him then? The only way would be to drive around and hope to run across him. I drove away from the house and towards main street.


	8. Stalkers and premonitions

These hearts

Chapter 8

I drove around for hours, looking everywhere. Finally Shane called.

"He's back at the house."

"Warn him, I'm coming and he's dead." I said and hung up. I came in the house but didn't see him. I looked at Shane, the question in my eyes.

"I told him to wait in your room." He said. I nodded and went upstairs. He was sitting on my bed, legs crossed. I didn't say anything, just stood there with my arms crossed, staring at him.

"Look I know what I did was stupid but I had to do it, and I'm not sorry." He dropped his eyes.

"Do you realized what would have happened if you had gotten caught? You could have been kidnapped, maybe even killed!" he slouched even more. I wrapped him up in my arms.

"You scared me Jeremy. Promise me you wont do anything like this again." I said.

"Ok I promise."

We went downstairs and joined the rest of them, Dawson and Corey had come back to find out what Jeremy had seen.

"He didn't do anything abnormal, he just hung around the pizza place on 9th street and then went to the pool for an hour or so and then went home." Jeremy told us from his seat at the dining room table. We had all moved there to use it as a conference room and Dawson was writing down everything he said.

"How long was he at the pizza place?" I asked. Jeremy paused to think for a few minutes.

"Hmm, about two hours. He had four slices of pepperoni and like five glasses of soda."

"Ok so what happened at the pool?" Shane asked.

"Well, through the hour he checked out girls and did some very complicated dives to impress them. A few of them even gave him their numbers, and then he left. And I came home; from there I was forced to wait in your room by Shane and Bianca." He finished, Shane smirked and I elbowed him lightly in the arm.

"That sounds like normal Zack behavior to me." Corey said.

"definitely." Bianca agreed.

"He sounds pretty lame to me." Aidan remarked.

"And yet they all went out with him, what do you think that means boys?" Shane asked, leaning back in his chair and I rolled my eyes.

"It means that we thought he'd be a good candidate for some lip lock action." Bianca said smiling.

"You might have thought about it that way but I just wanted him to stop asking me. it was getting seriously annoying." I said leaning my head back and rubbing my temples.

"well I'm with Bianca on that one, only in it for the lip locking." Corey laughed and blew a kiss to Dawson, he smiled and kissed her cheek Aidan chuckled and looked away. The song about two people sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g came to mind just then and I smiled to myself. A huge yawn escaped from my mouth and I checked the cock. 11:30. how could I be so tired this early? I sighed, I was losing my ability to stay up till 4 am and be wide awake.

"Mal you should get some sleep, you've been under a lot of stress today." Bianca said sounding concerned.

"Don't go all mother hen on me b, I'm fine." I assured her but I knew she wouldn't listen. I was swaying slightly and of course she didn't miss it.

"ya right. Come on guys, lets go so mal can get some sleep." She said, getting up. The others followed everyone but Shane of course.

"Night chick." Corey said while opening the door.

"Night mal." Aid and Dawson said in unison before Bianca closed t door. I sighed and got up from the table to lock the door.

"Come on Jeremy, bed time." I said as I made my way slowly upstairs with Shane right behind me.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He said, getting up from the table and walking forward at a crawling pace.

We put Jeremy to bed and went to my room. No way was he getting out of my sight. I grabbed my set of Capri pants and tank top pajamas and went in my bathroom to change.

"I'll be right back." I told him as I walked through the door. I looked into my mirror and sighed. How could anyone want to hurt the people I loved all because I wouldn't go out with them? Who was going to be targeted next? How was I going to keep everyone safe till he's caught? I'd never get over it if any of them got hurt. I leaned over the sing and started crying. I guess I was being pretty loud because I didn't hear it when he came in. he turned me around and wrapped me up in his arms and stroked my hair.

"Don't cry, don't cry." He whispered again and again, I just cried harder. Shane picked me up and carried me to my bed; he sat down, still holding me, and rocked me back and forth slightly. He kissed the top of my head. I stopped crying, it wasn't going to do any good. He hugged me and made me lay down.

"Get some sleep. I'll be right downstairs if you need Me." Shane said and kissed my cheek.

"I love you." I said when he opened my bedroom door.

"I love you too." He closed the door; I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Against my will I fell asleep. This time my dream wasn't so pleasant.

Jeremy and Bianca were sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast. They were laughing, telling jokes. I heard some footsteps but obviously they didn't. I couldn't see the persons face, he grabbed Bianca's' hair and yanked her backwards. She screamed but the guy just laughed. Jeremy jumped on the guys back.

"Let her go you bastard!" he yelled and tried to bight the guy. The villain shoved Jeremy off and he hit his head on the marble floor and got knocked out. The man still had ahold of Bianca's hair and was dragging her toward the door; she was still screaming and thrashing around. Yes she knew kung fu but she was in no position to fight

"oh just shut up!" he shouted and slammed her head against the wall, she blacked out. He gathered her and Jeremy up and walked out the door, laughing.


	9. True love has perks

These Hearts

Chapter 9

"Mallory, Mallory! Wake up!" Shane shook me gently. I opened my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck, crying.

"Oh Shane! It was horrible!" I sobbed. He ran his fingers though my hair trying to soothe me.

"Shhh, it's ok. It was just a dream." He said quietly.

"No it wasn't. It was much more than just a dream." He pulled back to look at me.

"I'm confused mal, what do you mean? Of course it was." He said. I told him about my dream where he got in the car crash and the latest one where Bianca and Jeremy were kidnapped. He just sat there, looking even more confused than before.

"Why didn't you tell me about this before? This is important. Why would you keep this from everyone?" he stood up and turned away from me.

"I'm sorry, at first I just wrote it off but then you crashed and I was so worried it completely slipped my mind. I didn't keep it from you on purpose." I wrapped my arms around my knees and hid my face from him. Shane sat back down on the bed and pulled me out of the ball I was in.

"I'm sorry Shane." I said again.

"Don't be sorry mal." He looked down at the blankets and started talking again, "there's something I have to tell you." I waited silently for him to continue.

"Our three families's, Dawson's, Aidan's, and mine, are the descendants of three special families's who came over on the mayflower. When the men in the families had found the women they loved, they developed special powers which the women would inherit also, each one unique. The third family, Aidan's ancestors, developed a power which allowed them to feel each others pain. Back then girls were always needing protection, so that power would let the man know if she needed help and he would know exactly where she was at all times.

The second family, Dawson's ancestors, developed the power to talk to each other through their minds, also allowing them to know when the woman was in danger.

The first family, my ancestors, developed different powers than the women they loved. My male ancestors always fell in love with women who cared more about their friends and family than they did about themselves. The woman would receive the power to see the future of those she cared deeply about, and the man would always be there to protect her. He would transform into a black panther which in our families was a symbol of a guardian and warrior. Always being there to watch over her and keep her safe."

I stared at him with wide eyes.

"So you're telling me that Bianca, Corey, and I now have special powers? Corey can talk to Dawson through her mind, Bianca can feel Aidan's pain, I'm having visions and you can transform into a black panther? Am I dreaming?" he looked into my eyes and I knew he was telling the truth.

"Mal, this is real. Dawson, Aidan and I have been waiting our whole lives to find our true loves who would inherit these powers and you, Bianca, and Corey are those special women. Aidan and Dawson have already explained this to them. I would have explained sooner had I known you were having visions." I smiled at the words "true love."

"That's awesome!" I said, and he smiled at me. "I wondered why I was having visions, now its all clear. Oh and then there's your power, can I see you turn into a panther?" I asked, excited.

"Not now, you need to go back to sleep. Its 3 a.m." he said, standing up and walking to the door.

"I love you Mallory storm." He said.

"I love you too Shane thorn." I was still smiling as I lay down again. I fell asleep dreaming about black panthers. I was only sleeping peacefully for a short time, then the vision of Bianca and Jeremy being taken away returned and I awoke with the sunrise.

I got out of bed and took a shower, it woke me up a little but I was still exhausted. I got dressed at a crawling speed. It was 8:00 by now and there was a knock on my door I opened it slightly and saw Shane standing there with a tray of food. I opened the door all the way and he walked in, he placed the tray on my vanity table and came back to me. I stood up on my tipy toes to kiss him and he wrapped his arms around me. After a minute he pulled away.

"Come on, you should eat something." He said, grabbing the tray. We sat down on the edge of my bed.

"There's no way I could eat right now." I said shaking my head.

"Just humor me." he pushed the tray onto my lap. I shoved the tray back onto his lap and stood up.

"Look, I don't have time to eat! I have to save Bianca and Jeremy from getting kidnapped!" I walked out leaving him there sitting alone. I had to focus on saving my best friend and little brother. They were going to be kidnapped in two days if I didn't do something. I was sure that it was going to happen then because Shane's crash had happened two days after my dream, at 2:15 a.m.

I walked over to Jeremy's room and opened his door a crack, he was still asleep. I went inside and knelt at the side of his bed. I brushed the hair out of his eyes and kissed his forehead.

I will protect you, I swear it! I kissed his forehead again and walked downstairs. I made a pot of coffee; I desperately needed a pick me up. The doorbell rang and I got up from where I was sitting at the kitchen table to answer it. I opened the door but saw no one. I looked down and saw a plastic container with a note attached. I brought it inside, placed it on the table and then tore the note off.

"My mom made these for you; I got my little brother to deliver them. Enjoy.

-Zack W."

I re-read the note twice before opening the container. The smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies quickly filled the kitchen. My mother and Zack's mother were best friends and she was always baking us stuff. I popped a cookie in my mouth and chewed it slowly. It tasted odd, not like the normal stuff we got from her. I dumped tem in the trash and put the container on the counter. Coffee in hand I sat back down and racked my brain trying to figure out how to stop anyone else from getting hurt. I called everyone and told them to come over and then went to wake Jeremy up. I heard voices from behind his door so I stopped to listen.

"Hey buddy, time to wake up."

"Shane? What time is it?" Jeremy asked, I heard the bed creak as he sat up.

"It's almost 9; come on Mallory has to talk to you about something. Get dressed and then come downstairs ok." Shane said.

"Ok see you in a minute." I heard as Shane walked towards the door, I rushed downstairs so he wouldn't catch me eavesdropping. The doorbell rang again, I made my way over and opened it, and the whole gang was there including Brice and Rachel.

"Hey guys, come in." I turned and walked towards the dining/conference room. Suddenly a stabbing pain hit me in my right side; I let out a short scream and dropped to my knees.

I barely noticed when Shane kneeled down in front of me. I could hardly hear anything, and the only noises I did hear sounded as if I was under water. After a few seconds of agonizing pain it vanished like it was never there.

"Mallory! Mallory what is it?" Shane asked while trying to get me out of the ball I had folded myself into. I opened my eyes, not remembering when I'd closed them and let out the breath I was holding in. Bianca and Corey knelt on either side of me and each had a hand on my shoulder. Dawson and Aidan stood next to Shane.

"What happened mal?" Aidan looked down at me concerned. I sat up and shook my head.

"No idea. It was this sudden pain in my side, it was horrible." I shivered just remembering it. This was too odd. Shane pulled me into his arms and hugged me tight. Why had I yelled at him?! I loved him so much and all he wanted was to protect and care for me. I felt tears in my eyes and I blinked them away.

"I'm sorry." I whispered so only he could hear. He responded by kissing the top of my head. He let me go and we all walked into the dining room. I took a deep breath and proceeded to fill them in on my dreams.

Bianca point of view

Mallory finished speaking and we all just sat there, wide eyed and motionless.

Jeremy and I were going to be captured by the enemy? How could that be possible?

I started to shake my head.

"No, no that can't happen." I said quietly. Holding Aidan's hand I felt him freeze. He looked down at the table and I could tell what he was thinking.

"I fail. She's going to get hurt. I'm not going to be there to protect her." He exploded out of his seat and leaned on the table with his free hand.

"That is not going to happen! It can't!" he said forcefully.

"It won't." Mallory said, glaring at him. "If you think I'm going to sit by and watch as my friend and little brother get taken away from me, you are way off base Aidan Cruz. Sit down." She finished, and looked down at the glass table top. I felt tears in my eyes but I forced them away, now was not the time to cry. Aidan sat down and closed his eyes. I rested my head on the table and squeezed his hand.

No way, there is no way that I Bianca Valdez am getting captured by the enemy. I'm not going to let Jeremy be taken away either.

I stood up and all eyes turned towards me.

"I'm going to find the punk who's doing this and kick his ass, this has gone far enough." I announced and Aidan stood up with me.

"Then I'm coming with you." He said, I smiled at him and nodded.

"Me too." Mallory said and stood up, Shane followed her.

"Guess that means I'm coming too." He said.

"We'll watch the kids." Corey said and Dawson sighed.

"Ok guys, here is how it will go. I'll search the north side of town," I started explaining. "Aidan you'll take the south side, Mallory you get the west and Shane has the east." Aidan held his hands up in protest.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you talking about? I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"He's right B, no way are you going anywhere alone." Mallory agreed. I sighed and walked toward the door, ignoring them. They followed.

"Bianca you can't go alone." Shane insisted. I turned to face them again and put my hand on Aidan's shoulder, I looked into his beautiful sapphire blue eyes fiercely.

"Listen to me, I'll be fine. Mally's dream showed me getting captured in the morning with Jeremy." I had to stop because of the tortured look on his face; I had to stop because of the pain I felt from him. We felt any type of pain from each other, emotional and physical. He had explained a few days after he'd said 'I love you' for the first time. I'd thought it was great and was so excited to tell Mallory and Corey but he said that it was Dawson's and Shane's job to tell them and I couldn't interfere.

I started speaking again.

"Think about it aid, I'll be far away from his house and I'll be on my guard the entire time. You'll know if I'm safe or not anyway. Trust me aidan." I urged. He looked down at his shoes.

"Don't let anything happen to you Bianca Valdez." He said. I glanced behind him and gave Mallory a special look that meant 'give me some privacy.' She nodded and towed Shane outside. Aidan leaned down to kiss me and I met him half way. When Aidan and I kissed it was different than when my past boyfriends had kissed me, probably because this was real love. Not the common high school love you see everyday but the real thing. I inhaled his scent of red vines and dr. pepper and melted in his arms. I absolutely loved the way he smelled.

We broke apart and with one last tortured gaze from him we walked outside to our cars.


	10. Dance with me angel

These Hearts

Chapter 10

Dawson's point of view

How come I always had to stay behind with the kids? I want to be out there with the others looking for this bastard! She's always roping me into this.

I sighed quietly so she wouldn't notice.

I can't deny her what she wants. If she wishes to stay behind and watch the kids, that's what she'll get, and I can't bear to leave her alone.

I watched as she danced around the kitchen, listening to the radio while she made lunch for Brice, Rachel, and Jeremy. It amazed me the way all her problems went away when she danced.

She was so beautiful when she moved like that, spinning all over the place. I could never control myself when she did that. I walked up behind her while she set a place for one of the kids and wrapped my arms around her waist. I pushed her hair aside and kissed her neck, starting close to her shoulder and working my way up to her jaw line.

"Why must you torture me this way?" I asked in a husky voice. She giggled and turned toward me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and kissed me softly on the lips. I frowned when she pulled away but Corey just smiled at me.

"Glad to see you're actually talking now." She remarked and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Corey I've been waiting my entire life to be able to use it and I want to take advantage of it. What I don't understand is why you don't like to use your new power." I said truthfully and searched her grey eyes for the answer. She looked to the side for a second and then turned her head back to face me.

"I guess I'm just not used to it yet."

"Please Corey;" I leaned down to whisper in her ear, "you're even sexier to me when you use it." She laughed quietly and I straightened up to look at her.

"Fine, I'll try it again." I smiled as she closed her eyes and prepared herself.

Ever since I had told her about my ancestors and her new gift she was reluctant to use it. She wouldn't talk to me for a day after I'd told her. Soon she realized that what I said had been true, that she was my true love and without her I'd be nothing but a blonde boy with alarmingly bright green eyes. After that realization she discovered some advantages like not having to wait to talk to me in private and when sneaking into her room I never made a sound.

I tightened my hold on her when I heard her voice in my head.

"Is this really that sexy to you?" she asked. I saw her raise an eyebrow skeptically with her eyes still closed. I kissed her passionately and responded the same way she did.

"Oh ya."

"Hey Corey, is lunch ready yet?" someone shouted from up on the second floor. Remembering the kids she pushed me away gently and stepped back to the table.

"Yes Brice, come down ok." she shouted back up to them. I groaned quietly and walked back to the living room. I lay down on the biggest couch and closed my eyes.

Damn kids.

I was annoyed at the interruption not just because they made me stop kissing her but because Corey was just starting to like her new power and she always got self conscious when interrupted. Normally I really liked kids but now I'd have to start all over again.

"These kids must be up to something." I heard her voice in my head and my eyes flew open with shock. I guess I was wrong about having to start over, I smiled.

"What do you mean love?" I asked.

"Well, they aren't saying a word and they're eating at full speed like they want to get back to something." She explained. My smile turned downward and I got up from the couch.

"I'll go check Jeremy's room." I walked upstairs and opened his bedroom door. I saw something on the floor that reminded me of when I was a kid hanging out with Shane and Aidan. I smiled to myself and walked out.

"It just looks like they're making a robot Corey, nothing very suspicious."

"Oh, ok then." The kids ran past me up the stairs.

I looked through the arch that separated the kitchen and living room to see Corey loading the dishwasher. I watched as she danced around the table picking up plates and glasses. She didn't notice me watching her, which was fine with me. If she knew I was standing there she would stop twirling and get self conscious again. She hadn't become completely comfortable with me watching her yet.

I smiled at and idea. Maybe this will change that.

I hurried to grab her hand; catching it I spun her around once and then took her other hand in mine. She smiled up at me as I danced with her.

"My, my Dawson, aren't you good on your feet." She spoke normally and I grinned at her. I spun her again and then dipped her. Corey put her hand on the back of my neck and pulled me down to kiss me hard. A quiet moan escaped from her throat and I pulled her up in a standing position without breaking the kiss. She backed up, pulling me with her, into the counter. I broke away to breathe but continued to kiss down her throat. A few seconds of that and she pulled my face back to hers. I slide one hand to the small of her back to hold her closer and kept the other hand on her waist, my fingers playing with the fabric on the bottom of her shirt. She moaned again and I smiled against her mouth.

I lifted her up onto the counter so I wouldn't have to bend down to reach her.

"Much better." I heard her say in my mind. I groaned in pleasure that she was using her gift. I wasn't lying when I'd said it was sexy to me. She giggled into my head. I licked her bottom lip, begging for entrance and she opened her mouth. Corey ran her fingers through my hair while my tongue explored her mouth. She wrapped her legs around me and tilted her head back, breaking the kiss. Corey breathed heavily with her eyes closed.

"I need air but I don't want this to end." She said in my mind.

"Don't worry," I started sucking on her neck. "it doesn't have to end." I started to give her a hickey and she began to do the same to me. she moaned my name into my neck and I copied her. I undid a few of her shirt buttons but she grabbed my hand. I was surprised that she stopped me because we'd already done this before. I looked at her questioningly.

"Not now, not here." She thought. I hung my head but nodded. Corey hopped down from the counter and kissed me sweetly. I let her go and she switched the radio off and started the dishwasher. I sighed as I watched my angel.

I wonder if she wanted to be out with the others, even a tiny bit. Probably not. I don't want her out there anyway, even if we could talk the entire time. I guess it's a good thing she wants to stay here with the kids; at least I know she's safe. I pulled her into a hug and held her tight against me.

"I love you Corey." I told her quietly but seriously.

"I love you too Dawson." She lifted her head to look at me, she smiled and I smiled back at her.

"Forever." We thought in unison and I hugged her again.


	11. Don't open the locker

Ok guy's thanks for reading and reviewing! Now if this starts to stink or there's something you don't like you need to tell me. Ok so here's the next chapter!

These Hearts

Chapter 11

Shane's point of view.

Man this seriously sucks. Mallory's out alone searching for some psycho killer bound on hurting her friends, family, and ultimately her. we're on opposite sides of town and unlike Dawson and aidan I have no way of knowing if she's in danger or not. I really envied Dawson right now; at least he can talk to Corey without fear of her being heard and taken by the enemy. And at least Aidan would know exactly where she was. What good is being able to turn into an animal if I don't know if she's in trouble? The only way I could find her is by her scent.

I slammed my hand down on the steering wheel in frustration.

And on top of all that I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for! This would be so much easier if I was with her.

I glared at the street up ahead of me as I remembered half an hour ago.

****

Mallory towed me out of the house so Bianca and Aidan could have a minute alone. We were almost to her dark blue convertible when she stopped; stood up on her toes and kissed me passionately. She pulled away after a minute.

"Mal about these search arrangements," I started but she kissed me again, stopping what she knew would be a protest. Mallory pulled away and I frowned down at her.

"Mal really this can't," I started again but again she kissed me, this time with more force. She pulled away but instead of waiting for my protests to start again she sprinted toward her car. I ran after her but I got there too late, she had locked all the doors and rolled up all the windows.

"Mallory! Come on you know these arrangements aren't going to work! I can't know if you're safe or not!" I pleaded with her. She just shook her head at me.

"Shane we have to split up and cover more ground. We don't have time to waist." I started at her disbelieving.

"No Mallory I won't leave you alone!" I argued.

"You don't have a choice. I'll be ok, I promise. I love you." I watched as she kissed her hand and placed it on the passenger side window directly in front of me and started the car.

"No! Mallory don't!" I shouted but she drove away anyway.

Damn it! I screamed in my head. I walked over to my black ford escape and climbed in. I drove east like the plan. I hated it but she was right, we had not time to waist.

I was pulled back to the present when my cell phone rang.

"Shane it's me." I smiled full of relief.

"Mallory where are you? Are you ok?" my relief quickly changing back to worry.

"I'm fine; I promised I would be remember. Listen, I knew you wouldn't know what to look for so I want you to go look around the pool, Jeremy said Zack was hanging around there."

"Ok, what are you going to do?" I heard her sigh on the other end.

"Shane I don't want any argument on this. While Bianca looks around the pizza place Aidan's going to be sneaking into Zack's house." I frowned but accepted it.

"I still don't know what you'll be doing." Obviously this is what she was saying 'no arguments' about. I gritted my teeth while I waited for her answer.

"I'm going to be out on a date with the slime ball to distract him." My eyes widened in shock.

"You're what? No mal you can't do that. you suspect him of being a psycho kidnapper and you want to go out alone with him? No way! How did you even expect me to be ok with that?" I nearly shouted into the phone.

"Shane I said no arguments. This is the only way to make sure he doesn't catch Aidan looking around his house."

"There has to be another way! Just let me knock him out, he'll be unconscious long enough for aid to search his entire house and Zack will be none the wiser." I suggested. She sighed again and I could almost see her roll her eyes.

"No Shane, what if he woke up before aid was finished? I know Zack, he'd go straight home and then what would we do? Really this is the only way to be absolutely sure Zack will be away from his house."

"But," I started to plead but she cut me off.

"No buts." She said sharply. "I'll be fine. I love you." I gave in with a sigh. When she wanted something, she got it.

"I love you too. At least tell me where you're going to be."

"That small movie theater a few doors down from the pool." I smiled, slightly relieved.

"Really?" I had to make sure she wasn't kidding.

"I'm not stupid Shane. I know you'd want me near you so I will be."

If she hadn't been planning on going to the movies with a suspected psycho I would have been happier, way happier.

"I still hate this, you know that right?" I told her. She chuckled once on the other end.

"I know. I'll see you soon."

"You better." She hung up and I closed my phone.

Five minutes later I was breaking into the community pool.

It would have been nice if mal had mentioned that it was closed on Sundays! I grunted as I let go of the gate and landed on the opposite side of my car.

Alright, I'm in. now, where to start? Maybe Zack had a locker here.

I walked into the men's locker room and looked at all the lockers starting with the ones with name tags on them. None of them said Zack Wayland. Next I checked out the anonymous lockers; they were all empty.

Now what?

My phone rang again.

"Hey Shane its Bianca."

"Hey, what's up?" I asked.

"Mal told me you'd be searching the pool so I wanted to tell you he worked there a few days a week. He will have an employee locker." She explained. I walked out of the locker room.

"Ok thanks B."

"No prob, bye." I hung up and entered the employees break room. Finding his locker was easy; problem was it had a huge padlock on it. I went in search of the maintenance closet. Once I found it I grabbed a hammer and made my way back to Zack's locker.

I hit the padlock with the hammer until it broke off the locker door. Placing the hammer on the break room I opened Zack's locker and saw a few personal items inside. There was a hat, an id badge and a plain white shoe box. I picked up the box in one hand and opened it with the other. My hands shook as I looked upon pictures of Mallory from when she was about 13 till now, half used lipstick tubes, finger nail clippings and a lock of her hair.

Oh my god Mallory!

I dropped the box and ran out of the room towards the gate, and climbed over. I got in my car and sped down the street to the movie theater.

If you hurt my Mallory you'll wish you were never born.

I stopped the car in front of the theater and ran inside. I looked around desperately but saw nothing, and then I turned and went up to the concession counter.

"Did you see a girl with black hair and a black streak down the front?" the guy behind the counter looked concerned at my tone of voice.

"ya she and a guy went out back through that door." He pointed to the exit on his left.

"thanks." I ran out the door and saw Mallory on the ground, Zack standing over her. He grabbed her by the throat and pulled her up till her feet were dangling off the ground. I ran towards them yelling as I went.

"Let her go you son of a bitch!" I screamed. He dropped her and turned towards me. Still a few feet away I jumped at him, transforming into the Black Panther I had inside of me. I landed on his chest and knocked him to the ground. I growled and he flinched at the sound. I heard Mallory talking on the phone behind me. Zack started struggling under me. I growled again and he froze. I made to bite his shoulder but was cut off by a shout.

"Stop! If you bite him how are we going to explain it to the cops?" I turned my head back to him.

Damn it, I really wanted to hurt this bastard.

My attitude surprised me, usually I wasn't a violent person but this guy had hurt the love of my life. He deserved whatever I did to him.

I heard people coming towards us and turned to see Aidan and Bianca running over to us. I crawled off of Zack and locked eyes with Aidan; I jerked my head toward Zack. Aidan nodded and walked over to him, he grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him away toward the back of the theater, Bianca stayed next to Mallory.

I walked over to mal who was still on the ground, and licked her face; she wrapped her arms around my neck. Bianca knelt down next to me.

"We brought these for you; Aidan said you would need them." She showed me a stack of clothes.

"Come on, I'll make sure the coast is clear so you can get into the bathroom to change." Mallory said, standing up. I followed her to the back door of the theater where she motioned for me to wait. She went inside and a second later was rushing me inside. I changed back to normal and put on the new clothes Aidan and Bianca had brought me. I walked out of the bathroom and right into Mallory's awaiting arms.

"Oh Mallory, are you ok? How's you neck?" I pulled back to examine her. "What happened to make him hurt you?" I asked and she frowned.

"We were walking outside and once we went through the door he tried to kiss me, and when I stopped him he kicked me in the stomach, after that he dragged me out there." My eyes flashed with anger as I realized the full extent of what he had done to my angel. I stormed out back to where Aidan was keeping Zack. I was almost to the bastard, about ten more feet when mal grabbed my arm and pulled. I kept walking and she just kept pulling.

"Mallory let go, he deserves what he's about to get." I pulled against her and she pulled right back.

"Shane stop, it's not going to help now!" Bianca ran up behind her and put her hands on Mallory's shoulders.

"Let him go mal, he needs to get it out of his system." She told her. Mal let go of my arm and Bianca hugged her.

I walked up to Zack and kicked him in the stomach and then punched him in the face.

"Feel better?" Aidan asked.

"Yes actually. Did anyone think to call the cops?" I asked.

"All taken care of." Bianca said. The girls walked up, Bianca went to Aidan's side and Mallory leaned her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head. We heard sirens out front and went to meet them. Once they had Zack in the back of the police cruiser they turned back to us.

"You're that girl who got the stalker note aren't you?" Mallory nodded and I squeezed her shoulder.

"Well I'm officer Matthews, and this is my partner officer parks. We're one of the units working on your case. Looks like you caught the guy first. Could you tell me everything that happened here please?"

"Well Zack and I came out of the movie and he led me out back. We walked a little ways and he tried to kiss me, I stopped him and he got mad. He kicked me in the stomach and I fell over, and then Zack grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up off the ground. That's when Shane came, Zack dropped me and Shane knocked him down. Aidan and Bianca got here and we held him here while we waited for you guys to show up."

"Ok well it sounds like you had a rough time; you should go home and get some rest." Officer parks advised.

"You should have a look in the break room at the community pool down the street. There's proof that he's been stalking Mallory for years." I told the officers. They nodded and drove away. Mallory hugged me and I held her close.

I couldn't imagine how upsetting this must be for her. A child hood friend stalking and attacking her. My poor Mallory.

"Come on, let's get you home." I said. I put her in the passenger seat of my car and walked around to the driver side.

"What about my car? I can't just leave it here." She asked, her voice was still a little shaky. I patted her hand soothingly.

"Don't worry, aidan and I will come get it later?" She nodded and leaned back in her seat. We drove back to her house and Corey, Dawson, and the kids met us outside.

"Oh my god, Mallory are you ok?" Corey asked while mal hugged Jeremy.

"I'm fine Corey." She assured her and gave Corey a hug.

"Bianca called, you scared us mally." Dawson said. She hugged him too followed by hugs for Brice and Rachel.

"I know but at least not its over." She sighed. We all walked inside as Aidan and Bianca pulled into the drive way.


	12. It's raining junk food

This chapter is dedicated to the first fan I ever had, "Iheartdesign34"

Thanks you to everyone who reviewed!

These Hearts

Chapter 12

Mallory's point of view

"Ok guys I'm going to change and then I vote we go celebrate." I said as I walked up to my room. I heard their happy voices chorus in agreement from the first floor. I walked into my room and went over to my closet. I grabbed a blue dress, pretty but still casual.

Suddenly the same stabbing pain I had yesterday hit me again, this time in the stomach. It lasted longer than last time and was twice as painful. I kept silent, not wanting to alarm them. When the pain had passed I went to the bathroom connected to my room and splashed my face with cold water from the sink.

It was probably just an after affect from Zack's kick.

After I washed my face I changed into my dress and matching sandals and then went downstairs to meet them. Shane smiled and walked over to me, I smiled back at him. I hugged him and then took his hand.

"So where are we going guys?" I asked them, Dawson's face lit up with excitement.

"Pizza and poker party at my house. My dad designed an entire room of our house just for this purpose." He replied. I laughed.

"Sounds great."

We played for hours until Corey had cleaned us all out. I'd noticed a real change in her since she'd met Dawson. She was smiling and laughing more. She wore different colors besides black, they were still dark colors but it was a change. Basically she just seemed happier.

I scored the record for most pairs of queens in one tournament, 27. And Dawson got the record for eating the most pizza, 15 slices.

"Ugh I think I'm gonna puke." Dawson groaned. Corey came back from the kitchen with a bottle of pepto bizmall and a glass of water, she placed them both on the table in front of him.

"Well it serves you right. Honestly, I have never seen someone eat so much." She sat down next to him and rubbed his shoulder.

"Hey its not my fault Shane kept trying to beat me. Really dude, you should know better by now. Pizza is one of the things you can't use to beat me with. We've been doing this for years."

"Years? Seriously?" Bianca asked between giggles.

"Yes love, every time we have a party they do this." Aidan explained. We all laughed at them and the boys smiled at each other, remembering a shared memory.

"We're men can you blame us for being competitive?" Shane asked, I just laughed again.

I watched Shane and Dawson as they playfully argued about all of their contests and who had won each of them. Corey and Bianca were laughing at them and Aidan was being the expert witness, making sure they got everything correct. I smiled at my friends. I grabbed a piece of popcorn from a nearby bowl and chucked it at Dawson. Everyone turned to look at me. Dawson stared at me and I stared back.

"Oh so that's how it's going to be huh?" he said. He grabbed a chip and threw it at me. I ducked under the table and blindly threw more popcorn.

"Mal, so un cool." Bianca whined. I popped my head up to smile at her and Aidan nailed me in the fore head with a piece of pepperoni, it stuck. I pealed it off and glared at him.

"Dude why?" I asked. He held his sides in laughter and rocked back in his chair. I grabbed a handful of popcorn and hit him in the face, he fell back in his chair and hit the floor. Corey laughed and Bianca hit her in the nose with a piece of sausage from her pizza. Dawson retaliated for her and hit Bianca with some chips. Aidan countered with popcorn hitting me and Dawson at the same time. Shane got him with some chips and it continued like that. Someone would hit one of the girls and said girls' boyfriend would defend. Of course most of the time a guy would get hit, then his girlfriend would counter attack. By the end of the fight everyone had food in their hair and was breathing hard.

"Oh my poor maid, she's gonna have a hell of a morning tomorrow. But on the other thought I wish I could see her face." Dawson said, Corey slapped his chest and he flinched.

"Jeez Corey I was just kidding." He frowned but quickly perked up when she kissed his cheek. I laughed quietly at them.

"Come on B, its late. Let's go to your house. We have to get the kids back anyway." Aidan said. Rachel spoke up from her place next to him.

"I wanna sleep over at Jeremy's house." she said. Jeremy was standing next to me; he looked up with begging eyes. Aidan spoke before I could.

"Ha! No way little girl." Rachel glared at him and crossed her arms.

"You sleep over at Bianca's house all the time." She nearly shouted and Bianca blushed. Corey and I locked eyes. We walked up to Bianca; each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her into the kitchen.

"He sleeps over all the time?" I asked and she blushed again.

"Are you serious?" Corey continued. "Dawson's only slept over twice! And that was last night!"

"Same here B."

Now I know this might not seem like a big deal to some people but when we were just little girls we made a pact not to have boys sleep over till we were engaged. Last night the boys had slept over for protection. Bianca had broken the pact and we wanted an explanation.

"Look its not like we're doing anything bad. I just like waking up next to him." She explained. Corey and I looked at each other again with wide eyes.

"He's in your bed?!" Corey and I both gasped.

"Shane slept on the couch B."

"Dawson did too."

"Guys, just try it. You'll understand in the morning, it's worth breaking the pact." Bianca said and walked past us back to Aidan. Corey and I locked eyes once more and then followed her.

"Come on aidan!" Rachel continued to whine.

"No Rachel. My little sister won't be sleeping over at her boyfriends house till she's married now lets go." Rachel held her ground.

"That's not fair!"

"So sue me!" Aidan had finally had enough. He picked her up and swung her over on one shoulder, she kicked and punched everywhere but it didn't faze him.

"Come on Brice. Let's go B." Bianca followed him and winked at us on her way out.

"Do you want to sleep over at my house tonight?" I asked Shane quietly, I looked down as I talked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him and Dawson lock eyes for a second, probably wondering what Bianca had said to us in the kitchen.

"Sure mal." He agreed. I saw Corey and Dawson look at each other then Dawson nodded. She was trying it too. Shane took my hand and Shane, Jeremy, and I walked out to his car.

I didn't talk to either of them during the drive back to my house, just stared out the window. I could feel them staring at me with curious eyes but continued to ignore them. When we got to my house I saw my blue convertible in the driveway and smiled. Shane stopped his car and we got out, when we walked past my car I kissed my hand and touched the windshield, I loved my car.

We walked up the front steps and up to the door, I searched my jacket pocket and my purse for my house key but it was gone. I frowned at myself for losing another key. Jeremy rolled his eyes at me.

"Don't tell me you lost your key again. That's like the eighth time mal." I heard Shane snicker from behind me, I glared at him and he tried to cover it up with a cough. I turned back to Jeremy.

"Just open the door Jeremy." He laughed quietly and used his own key to open the door. We all came inside and walked upstairs. After I put Jeremy to bed I pulled Shane into my room. He smiled at me, pushed my hair behind my ears and kissed me lovingly. The image of him changing into a panther floated across my brain and I kissed him back roughly. For some reason seeing him like that was very sexy to me. He looked surprised but adjusted quickly. He kissed me back and turned us around so my back was toward the door instead of my bed. Pushing me up against the wall he grabbed one of my wrists and held it up against the wall.

I moaned softly so Jeremy wouldn't hear and clutched the front of his shirt with my free hand, pulling him closer. I opened my mouth and his tongue explored every inch of it. I moaned again and he pressed his body even closer to mine.

I pushed my tongue into his mouth and he groaned as I licked the roof of his mouth. I pulled away to breathe and locked eyes with him.

"We'd better stop before we take this too far. I'm about to lose it aren't you?" I asked and he nodded. Still breathing heavily I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me." he tried pulling away but I grabbed his shirt again to hold him here, he looked confused.

"I want you to sleep in my bed tonight." I told him. "Just to sleep." He nodded.

"Just to sleep." I kissed him quickly once more to get it out of my system and walked over to my dresser. I pulled out a night gown and went into my bathroom to change.

When I came out I saw that Shane had taken his shirt off and put it on the end of my king sized bed. He was sitting cross legged on the bed. He raised his arms when he saw me and motioned for me to join him. I crawled in next to him and lay down with him.

"I love you mal." He said and kissed the top of my head. I smiled.

"I love you too Shane."

I clapped my hands once and the lights shut off automatically. I closed my eyes and immediately fell asleep in his arms.


	13. Revenge is hot

These hearts

Chapter 13

Aidan's point of view

I was woken up when someone jumped on me. Still half asleep, I didn't react immediately.

"baby wake up!" Bianca whined loudly, I groaned and tried to roll over but she laid on top of me, forcing me to stay put.

"come on aid! Wake up already!" she whined again. I kept my eyes closed, if I opened them she was bound to use one of her most powerful weapons against me, her eyes. Every time she wanted something all she had to do was bat her eyelashes a few times and I'd be helpless.

"Bianca what is it?" I asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"you have to get up. We are going to meet everyone for breakfast at the diner." she spoke qui9etly before planting a few soft kisses on my bare chest. Before I could respond she kissed me gently on the lips. I groaned again and rolled on top of her.

"B, you know you can't do this to me so early in the morning. It messes with my head." she kissed me again passionately then gently pushed me off of her. She stood up, slid a hair tie off of her wrist and put her hair up in a pony tail.

" alright, since you're up now, lets go meet the others ok." I got up and grumbled a little as I walked over to the duffle bag full of my clothes. I'd brought it here the third time I'd slept over. I hated having to drive home to change in the morning and then having to drive back to her house to spend time with her. Bianca walked into the bathroom and started fixing her makeup. I knelt down on her hard wood floor and unzipped my duffle bag. I grabbed a pair of jeans and Bianca's favorite one of my shirts. I changed quickly and placed yesterdays clothes in the bag. Sitting down on Bianca's king bed, I looked around her room, waiting for her to finish with her makeup.

Most of her stuff was purple; her bedspread her, her curtains, the paint on her walls, and much of her wardrobe were different shades of purple. After the third look around I got bored.

"come on Bianca, we have to go."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." a second later she walked out of her bathroom dressed in a lavender dress and white flip flops. Her hair was now pulled into a clip. I looked her up and down and smiled at her. She raised an eye brow at me and put a hand on her hip.

"well come on Mr. impatient, lets get a move on." she took my hand and pulled me off of the bed. Accidentally pulling me too close, Bianca attempted to take a few steps back. I grabbed her arm in one hand and slid the other around her waist. I gave her a quick kiss then tossed her over my shoulder and started walking out. She giggled and squirmed to get free.

"baby put me down." she giggled again. I got to the foot of the third floor staircase and started the descent to the first floor.

"never." I replied. She was quiet until I hit the bottom of the stairs. She was completely still as she spoke.

"Aidan, if you don't put me down I swear I'm going to kick you." her tone was dead serious. I stopped walking for the length of three heart beats to consider this. She was only annoyed because I'd been able to pick her up so easily. She saw it as a weakness, but she'd never hurt me over it. I continued walking.

"did you hear me?" she asked angrily.

"I heard you, but I'm not going to put you down so you can forget about it."

"why not?" she asked, still upset. I smirked and finally got to the door of her mansion.

"because I know you would never kick me and you know it too."

"well aren't you a smarty pants." she laughed. We were quiet as I walked the rest of the way to our cars. Unfortunately that's when I was forced to let her go. Once she was on her feet and facing me Bianca stood on her toes and pressed her lips to mine sweetly. She pulled away before I could get too into it and I saw my car keys wrapped around her left ring finger. I rolled my eyes at her.

"you win so you get to drive. Lets go." since she had won our little game I was forced to sit in the passenger seat while she got to drive _my _car. I had won for the past week but on mornings when I hadn't gotten enough sleep and my brain wasn't completely awake, she'd distract me somehow and win.

We climbed into my silver and red Subaru Baja and I yawned as she pulled out of the drive way. At least all the kids were at a day camp today and I wouldn't have to deal with Rachel's whining. I love my sister, just not in the morning.

We walked into the 'tree top diner' and Corey immediately waved us over. I pulled Bianca's chair out for her and then sat down in my own chair. Mallory and Shane were sitting across from us and Corey was on my left side, across from Dawson. Mal was sitting with her forehead resting on the table.

"what's up with you mal?" I heard her mumble something unintelligible and I raised an eyebrow at her.

"sorry, didn't quite catch that." she lifted her head from the table and leaned into Shane. He put his arm around her shoulder.

"they don't have waffles today." she pouted. We all laughed at her, she stuck her tongue out at us and smiled. The waitress brought a round of coffee for everyone except Bianca who had tea and handed us our menu's. I yawned again as I mixed cream and sugar into my coffee. I drained the cup in one long sip and heaved a large contented sigh. I placed the cup back on the table and they all snickered at me. I just smiled.

The waitress came back and we ordered. After she disappeared into the kitchen I put my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my hand. Staring out the window, I drifted off into day dream land. Sometime later I felt someone tapping my shoulder but I ignored it, I was much too interested with the little stick figures doing cartwheels in my head. The tapping continued and I decided that I had better see what was going on. I looked to the right where Bianca had her hand on my shoulder. I gave her a questioning glance but before I could actually voice my question I was hit in the face with a napkin ball.

I turned to look at my friends sitting across from Bianca, Corey and I and saw that they were all armed with napkin balls in each hand, all except Dawson who was in the process of rolling another one. It was then that I noticed the mischievous look on Bianca's face.

_**She's in on it! How mean!**_

Dawson, Shane, and Mallory took aim and fired, each throwing two napkin balls at me. I lurched backwards as I tried to avoid them and fell back in my chair. With a loud thump I hit the linoleum. Getting back on my feet I put the chair back where it was supposed to be and rubbed my sore elbow, Bianca rubbed her elbow as well. I straightened my shirt and gave each of my attackers, excluding Bianca, a death glare. I leaned down to whisper in Bianca's ear. I heard her take in a quick breath and saw her bite down on her lip.

"I'll get you back for this, and soon." I said and she took another breath.

Then I stood up to my full five feet and eleven inches. I cleared my throat and excused myself from the table, I walked towards the bathrooms but darted into the kitchen when they weren't looking. I found the chef preparing our food and had a quick talk with him. A minute later I walked out of the kitchen, tucking my wallet into my back pocket, and sat back down at our table.

They all found different places to look than at me and I smirked.

"come on guys. Chill out I'm not mad. It was funny." I said, they looked at me cautiously and I smiled. They smiled back and Mallory let out a relieved sigh. Dawson chuckled, it was so like him.

"I told you he was a good sport Mal." she smiled at him. I looked at Dawson.

"of course I'm a good sport. Come on man how long have you known me?" he laughed again. Just then our food came and I hid my devious smile as I passed the plates to the correct people. I watched my three assailants out of the corner of my eye as I cut up my chicken fried steak and eggs.

_**Ooh they have no idea what they're in for. **_

I maintained my calm composure as I watched Mallory, Shane, and Dawson take their first bite. They chewed and were all content for a few more seconds, and then it hit them.

Their eyes widened as the hot sauce burned their tongues. They all swallowed loudly and Mallory fanned her tongue. All three of them grabbed for their water glasses desperately. I was clutching my sides as I laughed uncontrollably as they gulped down the ice water as fast as they could.

Bianca looked down at her plate, fearfully, and then stared at me. I wiped the tears brought on from my laughing fit away from my face and returned her stare.

"don't worry you're safe," I said and she let out a relieved sigh. I continued in a whisper, " I'll get you back in a much worse way." she narrowed her eyes at me and turned back to her food. I chuckled again and turned to my own plate. Dawson was chugging Corey's water now and she had a worried expression on her face. I smiled again and dug into my breakfast.

For the rest of the morning Dawson was pretty much silent, most likely plotting his revenge against me. Mallory had decided to stay talking to me but she definitely held a grudge, and Shane had forgiven me completely, but I had no doubt in my mind that he would be taking part in Dawson's scheme. We all walked out of the diner at around 10:00 am. Dawson led the way out with Corey riding on his back, then came Shane and Mallory. Shane had his arm around her shoulders and they walked huddled together.

Bianca swung our clasped hands in the air and smiled, it didn't hide the anxiousness that I saw in her eyes.

_**It's going to be hard to get her back if she keeps this up. She knows I can't stand it when she's upset. **_

_**Stay strong Aidan, you know you aren't going to do anything that will hurt her. **_

I squeezed her hand without thinking about it and looked towards our friends. Shane and Dawson were arguing about who could carry their girlfriend farther. I rolled my eyes and interrupted them.

"Give it up guys. It's not like either of you could beat me anyway. Or were you fighting for second place?" Shane raised his eyebrow at me and Dawson scoffed loudly.

"Oh please! I have way more experience with girl carrying than you do!" he said. Corey raised an eyebrow and tilted her head at Dawson. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Oh really?" she asked. Dawson tried to speak but nothing came out of his mouth. Corey continued, "With all of the experience you have you must be tired of it by now," she smiled widely and patted his shoulder, "Well don't worry honey, you'll never have to do it again." she turned and walked down the street to her car.

"Corey wait!" Dawson finally found his voice and we watched her give us all a backwards wave as she continued to walk away. Dawson ran up to her and they stopped talking normally. I looked back at Shane when he spoke up.

"It's a good thing he's out., not like he could win anyway. I mean seriously, I have more experience with girl carrying than both of you put together." he said. Mallory looked up at him and I shook my head.

_**Here we go again.**_

"_Is that so?" she lifted Shane's arm off of her shoulders and took a step away. "Well then, remember what Corey said? That goes double for you." she walked away in the opposite direction of Corey and Dawson to Shane's car. Immediately he chased after her and Bianca and I shared a laugh. _

"_Do you think they'll ever learn?" she asked. I laughed again._

"_Not in a million years." she chuckled as we walked over to my car. She got into the drivers side and pulled away from the curb. _

"_What are you going to do to me?" she asked, nervous again. I rolled my eyes at her._

"_You're acting like I'm going to duct tape you to the side of you're house or something. Seriously, I know you've thought of a thousand things you think I'll do to you. What is the worst one?" _

_She focused on the road as she answered. _

"_I don't know, I obviously thought that you would do something I would definitely hate. Like maybe make me wear something yellow." she shuddered at the thought and I chuckled. _

"_Why would I make you do something like that? I hate yellow too." _

"_Well then tell me what you're going to do!" she said, exasperated. I smirked._

"_Don't worry, you'll figure it out once we get back to your house." she grunted unhappily and didn't talk to me again until we walked through her front door. I took her hand and led her into the in home movie theater on the first floor. _

" _Why are we in here?" she asked. I smiled and pulled a few movies off of the shelf. I hid their covers against my chest as I turned to face her. She eyed me wearily and I flipped the DVD cases over for her to see. She gasped and looked at me suspiciously. I smiled down at her._

"_Your punishment is that you have to stay in here all day with me watching our favorite movies. It's harsh I know but I think you deserve it." she smiled. Wrapped her arms around me neck and kissed me happily. _

_She pulled away, taking a DVD with her, and moved over to the giant television screen. I walked into the in home concession stand and gathered our favorite junk foods. Walking back into the main room I saw her on the longest couch. I placed the snacks on the small table to the right of the couch and sat down next to her. It was a reclining couch so I pulled the lever and opened up the seats to their full length. I stretched out and she snuggled against my chest, taking the popcorn from me and pressing play on the remote. _

"_You're such a softy aid." she looked up at me and smiled. _

"_Only with you love." I said and kissed her forehead. She turned back to the screen as the movie started. I chuckled a little bit and she looked up at me again._

"_I still don't understand why you love this movie so much. Beauty and the Beast is a Disney movie, you're seventeen, explain it to me please." I said and she shrugged._

"_It's a classic. Besides don't you want to be the beast? He gets the girl in the end." _

"_But I've already gotten the girl." I said. She smiled and sat up a little to give me a quick kiss. _

_We watched movies until late at night. Exchanging quick kisses and taking every now and then. Mostly we remained quiet, just enjoying the comfortable silence of each others company. I played with her hair absentmindedly as we watched and she eventually drifted off to sleep against my warm chest. I carried her up to her third floor bedroom and laid her gently on the bed. _

"_Aid?" she said sleepily. I looked into her half open eyes. _

"_Yes?" _

"_You're staying right?" she asked. I grinned at her. _

"_Always." _


	14. And then there were seven

These Hearts

Chapter 14

Aidan's point of view

I awoke with the sunlight streaming into my eyes. I sat up, rubbed my eyes and looked down. Expecting to see Bianca still asleep, but saw a note in her place. Picking it up I caught a whiff of her perfume and grinned.

"The police called Shane and Mallory to the station for a follow up statement or something like that so I'm watching Jeremy. Don't freak, I'm not in danger anymore remember? Anyway that's where I am so just come over when you read this ok. Love, B."

I frowned slightly at the note. Even if she wasn't in danger anymore, I didn't like her being away from me, especially if she was alone. Some people would say I'm possessive but if they knew how much I loved her they'd understand.

I dressed quickly, and after getting lost a few times I exited her mansion. I still hadn't memorized the full lay out of her house but luckily I had avoided her dogs this time. I shielded my eyes as I walked outside and towards my car. The sky was completely free of clouds today and the birds seemed to enjoy it. They sang beautifully and played around in the air, chasing each other around in circles.

Climbing into my car I turned on the radio and opened the skylight to let some fresh air in. I enjoyed all seasons but summer was my favorite. The birds were always chirping, the grass was green and because it was so warm I had an excuse to spend hours in my pool with Bianca.

I drove for a few minutes, enjoying the colors and sounds of the season but my smile quickly turned into a grimace. I flinched at a sudden pain on the back of my head like my hair was being savagely pulled. My eyes flew wide open as a scene floated across my mind, the special kind of scene that came to me whenever Bianca was in pain. I saw her on Mallory's kitchen floor being held in place by her hair. I could only see her attackers arm but noticed that he was struggling to keep her down.

Barely seeing the road I sped up and continued to watch my beloved Bianca get hurt. Bianca's attacker slammed her head into the wall, and as she blacked out my vision cleared. Only seconds later I arrived at Mallory's house, just as the kidnapper was coming out. I slammed on the breaks and grabbed the pistol that my father made me carry from the glove compartment and jumped out of my car.

I pointed the gun at the kidnapper and he froze.

"Put them down!" I yelled.

The attacker was masked so I couldn't see who it was but he slowly placed both Bianca and Jeremy down on the concrete walkway. Holding the gun steady I took a few steps forward but stupidly decided to look away from him and down at Bianca. Before I realized what was happening he reached into his pocket, pulled out a tazor (the kind with a rope that shoots out and attaches to the victim) and pumped me full of electricity. I fell to my knees, desperately trying to pull the trigger of my pistol. He shocked me again and I went down, before I faded into unconsciousness I saw Jeremy raise his head a few inches off the ground. The man immediately tazored him and Jeremy's head fell back down.

Mallory's point of view

Shane raced down the street, speeding towards my house. We followed the cop cars in front of us, we were at the police station when Aidan had called us. We had told the police and they'd given us an escort. Shane hit the breaks when we reached my mansion and we saw my baby brother lying on our walkway. I jumped out of Shane's car and ran over to him.

"Jeremy!" I shouted but he didn't even flinch.

Sliding down on my knees I pulled him onto my lap and turned him over. His face was cut in many places and there was blood in his hair. My vision blurred as my eyes flood with tears.

"Jeremy! Jeremy wake up! Please wake up!" I chanted and rocked him gently back and forth. Shane walked up and knelt next to me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and held me still. An EMT ran up and tried to move Jeremy away from me. I held him tight and pulled away.

"Miss, I have to examine him." the man said. I continued to stare down at my brother. He was battered and bloody and I hadn't been able to do anything to protect him.

I'm_** his older sister, **_I'm _**supposed to protect him from danger **_not_** bring it upon him. **_

_"Mal you have to let him take a look at Jeremy." Shane gently shook my shoulder. _

_I turned my head to the side and stared at him. He was right, I had to let him go. I relinquished Jeremy over to the doctor and Shane wrapped his arms around me. _

_"I'm sure he's fine love." Shane assured me. _

_I didn't respond, I was watching that doctor like a hawk. Jeremy had never liked doctors. He thought the offices were too white, their hands were too clean and they smiled too much. He was unconscious so at least he wouldn't squirm under the doctors touch this time. But of course Jeremy, always doing the exact opposite of what I thought, started twitching. _

_I untangled myself from Shane's embrace as Jeremy continued twitching. I moved closer to him and Jeremy's eyes crawled open. He spotted the doctor and his eyes bulged out, he scrambled into my arms and clung to me. _

_"Mal a doctor is touching me, why is a doctor touching me?" he said frantically. I stroked his dark hair, trying to calm him down. _

_"Jeremy relax, he just has to examine you. You were unconscious when we found you." he stopped trying to get farther away from the doctor and stiffened, seeming to remember what had recently happened to him. He looked at me and it all spilled out. _

_"Oh my gosh, Bianca got taken! I woke up for a second and saw Aidan on the ground too but then the guy shocked me and I blacked out again."_

_"You probably have a concussion from the fall you took on the marble earlier. You have to let the doctor take a look at you." I told him, he looked terrified of the idea. _

_He looked back and forth from me and the man and so quietly that I wasn't sure he actually did, he whimpered. I pushed him over to the doctor and he grabbed my hand. _

_"It's ok, it will only take a minute." I cooed. The man moved Jeremy's head from side to side and he squeezed my hand painfully hard._

_"It doesn't look like you have a concussion but you have a pretty nasty cut here that will need stitches. Quite a few of them actually." the doctor observed. _

_He called over a stretcher and the other EMT'S loaded Jeremy into the ambulance. I turned back to Shane. _

_"I'm going to go with him ok." I said and he nodded. _

_"I'll follow in my car." I gave him a hug. _

_"See you soon." he said as I climbed into the ambulance and I waved at him. They closed the doors and I turned back to Jeremy as they started the engine. _

_"You know I hate hospitals, it's too clean."_

_"I know but you have to get your head stitched. How are you feeling Jeremy?" I asked. He sighed. _

_"I'm ok. What about you Mal. I didn't scare you too much did I?" he asked. _

_"Don't worry about me. I'm not the one who got knocked out twice or kidnapped by a psycho. I'm just the one who caused all of it." I put my head in my hands and sighed. Bianca and Aidan were gone because of something I had done. Two of my best friends had been taken and my little brother was on his way to the hospital to get his head stitched closed. _

_"Mallory it's not your fault." Jeremy sat up and I pushed him down again. _

_"Yes it is Jeremy, I'm the one who said no the psycho." _

_"But you didn't know this would happen, what were you supposed to do? Say yes to every boy who asked you out on the of chance that he could turn into a maniac if you said no? This is not your fault, at all." he finished. _

_"If you say so." _

_We arrived at the hospital then and they pulled Jeremy out of the ambulance. I followed the group of orderlies surrounding Jeremy until they stopped me at the examining room door. _

_"You can't follow us miss." an orderly held up his hand to stop my approach. _

_"Are you aware that the last time an orderly tried to stop me from following a loved one into that room I beat him up along with another who tried to back him up? And believe me if my friends hadn't shown up and pulled me away from the fight I would have taken them all down if it meant I would be with my loved one." I clenched my fist and stepped closer to the man, getting right into his face. "Now, that is my baby brother in there and I' am going to be in that room with him by any means necessary. So, do you want to step aside or are we going to have to do this the hard way?" the man backed up and stepped aside then waved his hand. I adjusted my jacket in a triumphant fashion and walked past him. I rushed over to Jeremy's side and his face lit up with relief. _

_"They let you in this time? Jeremy asked and I smiled down at him. _

_"You have to know how to work these people." I winked at him but his smile went away and I frowned with him. _

_"Mallory I don't want that doctor to stitch me up with those too clean hands and it's too white in this room." _

_"Don't worry, it'll be over in no time and then we'll get out of this room and into one with a little more color." I held up my hand and he clasped it tightly. Jeremy turned his head to look at the surgeon. _

_"Ok doc, let's get this over with. Stitch me up." he told the man, the doctor nodded and proceeded to give Jeremy a sedative. Jeremy flinched as the needle hit home and he squeezed my hand even tighter. _

_"Sorry," the doctor apologized as he set the now empty syringe down on a nearby tray full of equipment. "Ironically that's supposed to relieve the pain." _

_"Funny doc." Jeremy replied bitterly. The doctor smirked at Jeremy's tone and then picked up the needle and thread. _

_With every stitch Jeremy squeezed my hand tighter and tighter. The doctor finished in the nick of time, one more stitch and I was positive that Jeremy would have broken my hand. _

_"There you go, all finished. Now once your sister signs some papers you're free to go." the man said and handed me a clipboard and a pen. _

_I quickly read through all of the papers and signed on the dotted line. He took the clipboard back, checked the papers and nodded. _

_"Ok, well be sure to change those bandages every couple days and don't get the stitches wet. Alright you're free to go now young man." Jeremy jumped off of the bed and made a B line straight to the door. _

_"Come on Mal lets go, you promised me a colorful room. Corey's probably here by now, you know she's going to be really worried about me." Jeremy walked out the door and I followed him down the short hallway to the waiting room. _

_He was right about Corey, she'll be going crazy worrying about him. Corey had always felt like a second older sister for him. She had been there the first day we had brought him home from the hospital and on his first birthday. She hung out with Jeremy more than she did with Evan. We entered the waiting room. Immediately Corey swung Jeremy up into her arms and I went straight into Shane's awaiting embrace._

_"Oh Jeremy, I'm so glad you're ok." she set him back down and Dawson ruffled his hair good naturedly. _

_"I'm always ok. I wish I could say the same for Bianca and Aidan. I wasn't able to do anything to help, just like in Mallory's vision." Jeremy hung his head and I pressed my own into Shane's chest. _

_"I was trying to keep it together," Corey said, "but they're gone. How do you stay together after something like this happens?" Corey covered her mouth and ran out. Dawson moved to follow her but I stopped him and ran after her myself. I caught her in the parking lot. _

_"She's gone Mallory! They're both gone! Two of our best friends. How are you not falling apart over this?" _

_"Because falling apart isn't going to help them now! I love them too and that's why I'm trying to think of ways to help them. We have to keep our heads clear. Now, I need your help to find them, I can't do it without you." she wiped her eyes and took my outstretched hand._

_"You're right Mal. Ok, I'm with you, lets head back inside." I nodded and we walked back together. If only I had a single idea for how to help them. _


End file.
